MCA Stressed: Malaysia Is Not What Najib Claimed

I happen to chance upon this BM article in Malaysiakini:

Malaysia sebuah negara sekular, kata MCA
Jul 18, 07 7:40pm
MCA menegaskan bahawa semua dokumen sejarah berhubung pembentukan perlembagaan persekutuan dan penubuhan sebuah negara yang merdeka menunjukkan bahawa Malaysia adalah sebuah negara sekular.....

Translation:
MCA stressed that all historic documents regarding the formation of the Malaysian Constitution and the creation of this independent country has proved that Malaysia is a secular state.

There was an issue with this a few years back with some leaders who spoke like Najib. All of a sudden, he claimed Malaysia is an Islamic State in public. His intention of such unexpected utterance is unclear. Malaysian readers can pass their own judgment on our current Deputy Prime Minister. After all, politics in Malaysia mainly runs on the concept of race and religion.

MCA was responding to these statements in a Malaysiakini report entitled ‘This is an Islamic state : Najib’ :
‘Malaysia is an Islamic state and not a secular one’
‘Islam is the official religion and we are an Islamic state’
‘We have never been secular…’

Jeff Ooi and Haris Ibrahim produced important points and old newspaper cuttings with statements from Malaysia previous statesmen, Tunku Abdul Rahman (who created the Constitution with other members of the independence committee) and Tun Hussein Onn.

The ex-Prime Ministers statements prove that Malaysia is an Islamic country (with Islam as an official religion) but not an Islamic State. In fact, Tunku was so concerned that he made a direct plead to the government to refrain from making Malaysia an Islamic state !

This is his exact statements:
‘The country has a multi-racial population with various beliefs. Malaysia must continue as a secular State with Islam as the official religion’.

Tunku was seconded by Tun Hussein Onn. It is definitely ironic that Najib's father, the late Tun Abdul Razak, who is also an ex-Prime Minister, participated in the 1956 delegation to London for independence of Malaysia. The British colonialists only allowed Malaysia to be free after the Constitution has been agreed by representatives from all races and both countries.

The message by Tunku was very clear. The words used are free from any ambiguity.

An important point that should be highlighted; Finally, MCA has taken the initiative to speak up. Somehow or rather, this action can be considered good. As the proverb goes, "It is better late than never". Currently, the general perception on MCA is not very positive. In the past, MCA had tolerated brandishing of keris with calls of "bathing in blood" in UMNO meetings even though the chinese community was obviously upset. It was a blunder to the credibility of MCA as a representative of Malaysian Chinese.

MCA should opt for persistency in speaking up against injustice and correcting wrong statements from BN component parties if there is an intention for the association to garner support from the grassroots.

I am comfortable with Malaysia being an Islamic country with certain Islamic family laws with the nature of a secular state. After all, Islam is a good religion if practitioners choose to practise the peaceful verses of Qur'an.

Islamic state equals to countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia. For the very least, that is what people all over the world and the mentioned countries thought of as Islamic states. In my opinion, Saudi Arabia looks more like a Medieval Arab State (pre-Islam). Perhaps they should not use the name of the religion as a label for their ultra-suppressive governance. Saudi Arabia does not allow any religion other than Islam to be practised.

Saudi Arabians come from the Wahhabi sect of Islam. Iranians are Shiah / Syiah Muslims (or Shiites).

Malaysian Muslims practise the Sunni version of Islam.

One of the "Prinsip Rukunegara" in Malaysia is "Keluhuran Perlembagaan". Translated, it means "Uphold and respect the Constitution". The same line can be seen at the back of a Sekolah Kebangsaan exercise book. Both primary and secondary school students are being taught to recite this at least once a week in general assemblies.


(Picture taken from Jeff Ooi )

Perhaps, Malaysians of various race and religion should just do that and everyone can live in peace and prosperity.