Hisham: MCA Stop making statements on secular state

MCA to stop making statements on Malaysia being a secular state: Umno Youth Chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein

Ranau: Umno Youth Chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Friday asked MCA to stop making statements on Malaysia being a secular state. He said though it was nothing new, such claims would not benefit anyone.
"I'm not naive enough to allow this issue to go on," he told reporters when asked to comment on the issue after opening the Ranau Umno delegates conference.

So is Malaysia a secular State?
MCA Secretary-General Datuk Ong Ka Chuan had said the party had ample evidence to show that Malaysia was a secular state, including several important events leading to the country's independence and formation of Malaysia.
He had cited notes prepared by the Colonial Office dated May 23, 1957 at the London Conference Talks.

But Najib claim Malaysia was never a Secular State
Various groups have also disagreed with Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's remarks that Malaysia was never a secular state, saying that the Deputy Prime Minister had ignored the country's constitutional history and social contract.

Bar Council President : Malaysia was not an Islamic State
Bar Council Malaysia president Ambiga Sreenevasan had said one only need to look at the Articles in the Federal Constitution, the system of government and administration of justice to show that Malaysia was not an Islamic state.

Najib had said Malaysia is an Islamic state that adheres to the fundamentals of Islam and having a Constitution which states Islam as the official religion. He said that being an Islamic state did not mean that the rights of non-Muslims were not respected.

.- Bernama

What MCA Replied in their Website
:A secular state is the basis of our Federal Constitution


Having reviewed the archives involved in the process of drafting the Federal Constitution, MCA Secretary General Dato’ Ong Ka Chuan stressed that Malaysia is a secular state, as this was the consensus and social contract agreed upon by our forefathers.

According to the Alliance’s memorandum to Reid Commission dated 27 September 1956 on page 19, “The religion of Malaysia shall be Islam. The observance of this principle shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religion, and shall not imply the State is not a secular State.” This was an unequivocal original intention of UMNO, MCA and MIC.

Reid Reports 1957 did not provide an article declaring Islam as the religion of the Federation. Justice Abdul Hamid from Pakistan opined that the Alliance’s proposal should be adopted because it was ‘innocuous’.

Ong mentioned that, the deliberations by the Working Party (comprising the Alliance, Rulers’ representatives & High Commissioners), held meetings after reviewing the Reid Report.
The first meeting held on 22 February 1957 attended by Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Omar Ong Yoke Lin, Tun V.T. Sambanthan and others stated that the Alliance desired a statement to be inserted that ‘… the States should be secular, ...’

During the 19th meeting held on 17 April 1957, the Chief Minister (Tunku) said, however that ‘the whole Constitution was framed on the basis that the Federation would be a secular State.’
Notes prepared by the Colonial Office dated 23 May 1957 at the London Conference Talks mentioned, ‘The members of the Alliance delegation stressed that they had no intention of creating a Muslim theocracy and that Malaya would be a secular State.’

Furthermore, when Tun Tan Siew Sin spoke in Parliament on 10 July 1957 in support of the Constitutional bill that although Islam would be the official religion, he said that ‘this does not in any way derogate from the principles, which has always been accepted, that Malaya will be a secular state and that there will be a complete freedom to practise any other religion’.

Dato’ Ong Ka Chuan concludes that the documents and facts shown above have given a true picture for Malaysia, whereby a secular state is the foundation of the formation of Malaya, and this consensus made by our forefathers, who shed much sweat and toil in the progress of peacefully negotiating for independence, should always be remembered and obeyed.
-MCA online-

What the Opposition Say

Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Is Wrong To Say That Article 121(1A) Makes Malaysia An Islamic State And Should Learn From His Own Father And Malaysia’s 3rd Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Own, Who Declared That Malaysia Is Not An Islamic State.
Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng, DAP

(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein is wrong to say in the Utusan Malaysia today that Malaysians have no right to question, oppose or challenge BN’s position that Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution makes Malaysia an Islamic state. Hishamuddin appears to have forgotten that it was his own father, former Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn who declared that Malaysia is not an Islamic state.

As a lawyer, Hishamuddin should know that the Federal Constitution is the supreme law of the federation as stated in Article 4 (1). No one is questioning Islam as the religion of the Federation under Article 3. However at no point was Malaysia an Islamic state nor Article 121(1A) made Malaysia an Islamic state as it only removed the previous control and jurisdiction of civil courts over syariah courts. It is ridiculous how Hishamuddin can stretch, distort and even pervert Article 121(1A) as converting Malaysia into an Islamic state.

Hishamuddin should learn from his father that our Federal Constitution is secular with Islam as the religion of the country. Tun Hussein Onn’s position is similar to the stance taken by our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and 2nd Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. This was reaffirmed by the highest court of our land, the Supreme Court in the Che Omar Che Soh case in 1988. In that judgment, Tun Salleh Abas ruled that the syariah law was not the basic law of the land and that the constitution was the supreme law. Unless there is a constitutional amendment Malaysia is and never was an Islamic state.

For Hishamuddin to even bar Malaysians from discussing Article 121(1A) is not only undemocratic, it also violates the basic human rights of freedom of speech. Even the Sedition Act or Article 10(4) of the Federal Constitution made no mention of not being able to discuss Article 121(1A). There are four sensitive matters that even Parliamentarians do not enjoy immunity and can not question relating to citizenship rights under Part III of the Federal Constitution, the position of national language and mother tongue-language under Article 152, special position of Malays under Article 153 and the status of Rulers under Article 181.

No mention is made of Article 121(1A) precisely because any questioning is not related to challenging the status of Islam as the religion of the Federation. Any questioning of Article 121(1A) relates to the rights of non-Muslims when matters relating to Islam are decided by the syariah courts. In matters affecting non-Muslims DAP adopts the position that if the religion of the subject-matter is not in dispute then the syariah courts have the right of jurisdiction. However if the religion of the subject-matter is in dispute and affects non-Muslims, then the civil courts should decide.

DAP does not oppose Islam as the religion of the Federation. However DAP strongly opposes Malaysia as an Islamic state where Islam is the main guiding philosophy for BN which is not stated in our constitution but seen as discriminatory towards non-Muslims.

DAP urges MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP to oppose Hishamuddin’s extremist attempt to rewrite history and pervert our Constitution without making the necessary constitutional amendments that make Malaysia an Islamic state. DAP support the rights of NGOs in Article 11 to hold forum to promote the right to religion and basic rights of non-Muslim in consonant with our basic human and constitutional right of freedom of religion.

DAP strongly condemns the attempts by extremist Muslim organizations and regrets that PAS and UMNO has united to restrict the democratic right of expression, erode the rights of non-Muslims and turn Malaysia into an Islamic state. If non-Muslims can not even question Article 121(1A) when they are adversely affected and their right to freedom of religion, then BN must bear full responsibility for turning Malaysia into an Islamic state where non-Muslims do not enjoy equal political and economic rights.

So is Malaysia a Secular State? Your Say?

Source : Malaysia Today, Malaysiakini and
MCA website,
http://www.mca.org.my/ENGLISH/COMMENTARIES/Pages/AsecularstateisthebasisofourFederalConstitution.aspx

DAP Malaysia Website
http://www.dapmalaysia.org/english/2006/july06/lge/lge404.htm