‘The Herald’ editor Rev Lawrence Andrew speaking to the media outside the court in Putrajaya. – filepic

What’s in a name? Well, in Malaysia, it is a big issue and, as events have shown, there are no winners even if the matter has been decided by the apex court.

LET me, right from the beginning, point out that I am a Christian. I am a Protestant, which is different from being a Catholic.

Protestants do not regard the Pope as the leader of the church, unlike the Catholics. The priests and nuns in Catholic churches practise celibacy.

In simple language, they are all unmarried and abstain from sex whereas pastors in Protestant churches can get married and have families.

In Malaysia, both priests and pastors are lumped together and referred to as paderi in Bahasa Malaysia. I do not know why, but that’s how things are.

The fact that there are differences within a faith is not exclusive to Christianity. All the major faiths have different schools of thought.

So when some Muslim groups in the country got angry with the Catholics over the Herald case, it was a Protestant church in Desa Melawati that ended up being hit with Molotov cocktails.

In Malaysia, because of our history, many Catholic churches are easily recognised by their large cathedrals with very distinct architecture.

The mainstream Protestants who came earlier, like the Methodists and the Anglicans, also have distinct churches but the newer Protestant churches tend to be located in shophouses, shopping malls, warehouses and even above coffee shops.

And that’s because the local authorities – the councils – make it difficult for churches to be built.

The conditions forbid the cross from being displayed openly and even putting the word “church” on the signboard is taboo. Many churches simply substitute the word “church” with words like “community centres”.

It is convenient to blame the federal government for everything but much of the authority is vested in state hands.

The church I go to in Petaling Jaya is located in an office block. As far as I am concerned, it is a church to me. To everyone else in the congregation, it is a church.

What is the point I am driving at? Simple. We need some common sense here, which is definitely missing from some of our religious and political elites. There are those who have been speaking a lot of gibberish while some have chosen to remain silent, hoping that the problems will vanish into thin air.

What’s in a name? Well, in Malaysia it is a big issue and, as events have shown, there are no winners even if the matter has been decided by the apex court.

There are only losers. All of us are affected by the negative media attention, especially the bad press overseas. And the sad and painful reality is that so much unnecessary ill will has been generated that threatens to tear at the social fabric that is keeping us together.

Have we managed to resolve anything? No, if you ask me. Many Malaysians remain just as unsatisfied and unsettled, and confused.

The federal government has correctly pointed out that Christians can still use the word “Allah” in churches and that the court ruling is confined only to the Catholic Herald, which had used the word “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia edition.

It’s just being practical. Anyone can insist on a blanket ban but how does one enforce such a ruling? By stationing policemen at all churches?

The 10-point agreement, for example, makes it clear that Christians in Sabah and Sarawak can use the Al-kitab and the word “Allah” over there. We can engage in a debate as to what happens when they are in the peninsula, but seriously, how would it be possible to stop them from doing the same here?

There are many Sabahans and Sarawakians in the peninsula who are here to study and to work. It just shows up the ignorance of the peninsular Malaysians when they assume that anyone with a Malay-sounding name and who looks Malay is a Muslim.

The Malays must not forget that the bumiputras comprise many ethnicities who have different faiths as well.

Umno may be strong on its Malay-Muslim agenda but there are actually many Christian bumiputras who are members of the party, something which is lost on some delegates at the annual assembly.

We may see the UiTM, where the recent controversial conference was held, as a fully Malay/Muslim institution but the fact is there are many Christian bumiputra students at the campus, some 3,500 at last count.

In a reply to a parliamentary question, the Education Ministry said the Christology Nusantara conference was an intellectual discourse but one can imagine the dire consequences on any Christian organiser who dares to hold a similar “intellectual” discourse at another public university or college.

What irks many Malaysians is why there seem to be different standards on such matters. Some groups seem to get away with just about anything while action is promptly taken against other groups or individuals.

We should make it clear that anyone who insults another, whether as an individual or as a group, on the basis of race or religion should not be spared.

If the authorities close an eye to these political thugs, it would encourage them to further divide the nation and, worse, send the wrong message that they are endorsed by the authorities.

At the same time, Christians must be honest enough to admit that in most churches, the word “Allah” is hardly used and I doubt the congregation, especially those in English-speaking churches, feel comfortable using the word, instead of “Lord”.

While Christians have fought for the right to use the word, the reality is that it is rarely used – except in services involving Sabahans and Sarawakians. Well, the babas in Malacca would also argue that they, too, refer to God as “Allah”.

One thing is clear. The Al-kitab, mostly printed in Indonesia, will continue to be studied and distributed, like it or not, by Christians who are more comfortable with the Malay language.

After all, our education system has produced a generation of Malaysians, regardless of their ethnicity, who are more at home with Bahasa Malaysia than English.

And let’s also be practical here. This is the generation who can find anything online. You can ban the printed version of the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia but anyone can simply download the entire version online.

The Penang mufti, Dr Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor, has correctly said that while the word Allah is used by Christians in Arabic countries, there is a need to consider whether it is suitable in our community.

“From what I can see, the majority of Muslims in Malaysia are still unable to accept it. Maybe over time, views can change,” he said.

This is the impression I have received speaking to many of my Muslim friends and colleagues, too.

Of course, they are aware that Allah is commonly used by the Christians in Arabic countries, just as Dr Wan Salim said. But the concern of our Muslim friends goes beyond that – it is that sense of belonging that connects them to Allah that is unique and special.

The reality is there is a fine line between right and wrong in religion, especially if it involves cultural practices.

The churches in Sabah and Sarawak that conduct services in Bahasa Malaysia, read the Al-Kitab in Bahasa Malaysia and refer to Allah, probably also pray quietly in Bahasa Malaysia.

Likewise, I spent a decade in a Catholic school, spent much time in Catholic churches and have many Catholic friends.

Although I am a Protestant, I still pray like how a Catholic would do, in my mind and heart, because of my school legacy.

And it’s between me and God. How I pray and how it is done, or for that matter, how I call God, is my private and personal concern. No one should decide for me nor judge me.

At the end of the day, we should be more fearful of God than men, who are but mere mortals.

The statements of Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, border on the absurd with his bizarre interpretations of the laws and court decisions of this country.

IS this Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, for real, because he seems to have chalked up a record for contradicting what the Cabinet has decided and practised?

Like many Malaysians, we want to know whether he has been making these statements in his personal capacity, or on behalf of the Malaysian Government.

If he is speaking on behalf of the Government, then we would like to know what the other ministers have to say. And as for the component parties of the ruling coalition, while some have spoken out strongly against his views, others have kept strangely quiet.

The statements of the retired major general, who served in the military religious corps before being appointed to the Cabinet, are bordering on the absurd with his bizarre interpretations of the laws and court decisions of this country.

He has quoted Article 3 of the Federal Constitution, which states that Islam is the religion of the Federation as the basis for his claim that Malaysia is not a secular state.

He went on to justify his claim by stating that “Malaysia is not a secular state as, historically, the country was established based on an Islamic Malay Sultanate government, with the Sultans being the head of Islam in their respective states”.

To him, that is enough to mean that Malaysia is not a secular state. To many of us, his line of reasoning is simply unbelievable.

And even as the debate is raging on, he came out with another statement in Parliament that the unilateral conversion of a child is allowed under the Constitution.

This is not only incorrect but is a direct contradiction of the Cabinet’s decision in April 2009 on the conversion issue.

I would like to refer Jamil Khir to a news report in The Star on Feb 9, 1983, when our first Prime Minister and founding father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, said clearly that Malaysia was set up as a secular state with Islam as the official religion and that this is enshrined in the Constitution.

“The Constitution must be respected and adhered to. There have been attempts by some people who tried to introduce religious laws and morality laws, this cannot be allowed.

“This country has a multi-racial population with various beliefs. Malaysia must continue as a secular state with Islam as the official religion,” the Tunku, known as our Bapa Merdeka, was quoted as saying.

He reiterated that Malaysia should never be turned into an Islamic state, reminding all that “no single race could have obtained independence for this country and no single race by itself can rule this country”.

A few days later, Tun Hussein Onn expressed support for Tunku’s statement that Malaysia should never be turned into an Islamic state.

“Any move of this kind is neither wise nor practical. The nation can still be functional as a secular state with Islam as the official religion,” he was quoted as saying in The Star on Feb 13, 1983.

Our third Prime Minister said Malaysia was set up as a secular state, but there were groups who had made use of this issue for their own interest and if this was not checked, the survival of the whole country would be threatened.

“We must think of the other communities with whom we have to live and if we do not have unity, there would be chaos and disorder,” he said.

On moral laws, Hussein Onn said the legal system adopted in this country did not go into the right and wrong as it was all a matter of concept.

“What is immoral to one may be perfectly all right with another and this is what complicates matters,” he said, adding that whenever Islamic laws were discussed, “it was the punishment that was emphasised and not the other aspects which pertain to good living”.

Another more famous Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, however, did create a lot of controversy at the opening of the Gerakan annual delegates conference in September 2001 when he declared that Malaysia is already an Islamic state.

In responding to the current debate, Mahathir has said that “Malaysia is neither an Islamic state nor a secular state, it’s just an ordinary state that recognises Islam as the official religion of the country”.

Many Malaysians are pretty sure by now that Jamil Khir, or at least the officers who drafted the reply for him in Parliament, has a poor understanding of the law and Constitution or possibly chose to read it according to their wishes.

But we hope that he will at least read up what these two Prime Ministers have to say about Malaysia being a secular state instead of trying to give us the flimsy answer of this country’s history being premised on an Islamic Malay Sultanate government.

If Jamil Khir takes the trouble to read up the historical documents, including the Reid Reports 1957 and the minutes of the meetings between the Tunku and leaders of the Alliance, he would be aware of the repeated emphasis that the constitution was framed on the basis that the Federation would be a secular state.

We also want to refer Jamil Khir to the Supreme Court decision in Che Omar bin Che Soh v Public Prosecutor (1988) when the five-man bench comprising Tun Salleh Abas LP, Wan Suleiman SCJ, George Seah SCJ, Hashim Yeop A. Sani SCJ and Syed Agil Barakbah unanimously declared that Malaysia is a secular state and not Islamic.

We salute our two former Prime Ministers and the judges for stating in clear terms that Malaysia is a secular state.

Over the past few years, it is clear that religious figures and PAS theologian-politicians have been pushing hard for their Islamist agenda. They have been chipping in slowly but seemingly effectively into our political and judicial structures.

The result today is that the authority of our leaders, the police and the judges has been compromised. Many Malaysians have the perception that these people dare not stand up against the powerful religious bodies.

What is of concern is that their fear may be due to the fact that they share the same faith and ethnicity, and anything they say can be easily labelled as speaking out against their own community.

This is not how it should be. The people in all our branches of government, from the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, all take their oath of office to uphold the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the nation. Their personal faith issues cannot interfere with how they carry out their duties.

The non-Muslims, meanwhile, are beginning to feel apprehensive over the direction that this country is taking, which they have known to be moderate and secular. Suddenly, the religious tide seems to be stronger in all spheres of life.

Not too long ago, Jamil Khir reportedly said the Govern­ment is prepared to support any bill on the implementation of hudud.

Until now, he has not clarified if that was his personal opinion because, as we know, there has been no such official move by the ruling government, despite the occasional bravado by some Umno politicians trying to show they are more Islamic than PAS.

Malaysians would like to know whether any of our politicians will be brave enough to say our Bapa Merdeka, who was instrumental in drawing up our Federal Constitution and other vital documents to seek our independence, had been wrong all this while.

Zarena and Mohamad Adzib showing the press statement to reporters after their meeting while her family members and Jais officers look on.

IT is said that weddings and funerals have many things in common. They are ­emotional ceremonies that bring people, especially family members and friends, together.

They also bring out the best and the worst in people, so the saying goes. And going by recent events, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

We are talking here about our religious authorities, who seem to have created a record of sorts, not to mention grabbing international media attention, for Malaysia.

They have long been known to show up at funerals to take away the bodies of those they believe were Muslims and therefore ought to be buried according to Islamic rites. They may have the records of the conversion, but problems arise when the families themselves are not aware, more so when the individual had not lived as a practising Muslim.

In our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society, such cases are more common than thought.

On June 1, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) supposedly stopped the Hindu wedding ceremony of Zarena Abdul Majid to question her religious status.

Although a subsequent meeting between Zarena and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) ironed out the issue with a joint statement that said “Jais had ­conducted its investigations in a proper manner without hurting the feelings of the family and guests who attended the wedding”, the damage had been done.

Here’s the complication – Zarena was brought up as a Hindu but her estranged Muslim convert father had registered her as a Muslim when she was a child. Her mother, a Hindu, brought her up as a Hindu.

The incident has once again focused attention on the position and powers of Jais in its dealings with the non-Muslim community.

The seizure of 321 copies of the Bahasa Malaysia and Iban language Bibles from the Bible Society of Malaysia on Jan 2, for example, certainly put the department in the spotlight and on Wednesday, the Attorney-General finally issued a statement which would hopefully bring the case to closure.

The Attorney-General said investigation papers showed that the seized books were essentially Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia, and that the Al-Kitab Berita Baik contained materials from the Bible, Torah and Psalms. The statement pointed out that the seized items were not “controlled items” and that it was not a national security issue.

While the A-G stopped short of directing Jais to return the seized Bibles, he said it was now up to Jais to take “the next course of action” in accordance with the law.

In a statement yesterday following the latest developments, both Mais and Jais are standing firm not to return the seized Bibles. Mais said the Selangor state government did not have the right to order for the return of items confiscated in the course of investigation.

“As such, both the council and Jais would not abide by the instruction,” the statement said.

Malaysians are disturbed, if not outraged, over the manner in which Jais has been carrying out its work, especially when it intrudes into the affairs of non-Muslims.

While Jais has blamed the media for using emotive words like “raids” to describe their actions, it cannot be denied that Jais is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as high-handed and insensitive in carrying out their work.

It would appear that Jais, although under the jurisdiction of the state’s higher ­authorities, is more powerful than the Mentri Besar of Selangor himself.

In the Zarena case, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said he was “embarrassed” while the BSM issue showed how he was simply ignored and had to turn to the federal authorities, like the A-G, for help.

Meanwhile, in Penang, the Penang Islamic Religious Department (Jaipp) cut short a funeral ceremony on Sunday afternoon and claimed the body which they said was that of a Muslim convert.

The Jaipp said its records showed that the deceased, known as Teoh Cheng Cheng, 38, converted to Islam 17 years ago and registered her Muslim name as Nora Teoh Abdullah.

The Syariah High Court declared she was not a Muslim and Judge Zaim Md Yudin ordered her body to be returned ­immediately to her family for burial.

Penang state executive councillor Datuk Abdul Malik Abul Kassim had to apologise on behalf of Jaipp for the manner in which its officials interrupted the Taoist-style funeral, admitting its actions were “insensitive”.

Both these incidents have left many Malaysians disheartened and even angry at what this country is turning into and, worse, how elected state leaders seem to have their powers usurped by these moral and religious police.

In the child custody disputes involving Muslim fathers who refuse to return their children to their Hindu mothers despite court orders, Malaysians, especially non-Muslims, have the right to question the ­reliability of the police as law enforcers.

Even when the bench gives them clear directions, the police are claiming that they are caught in the middle because of conflicting orders from the civil and syariah courts.

At the heart of the two current situations is the fact that both marriages were registered under civil law and the jurisdiction of the civil courts cannot be disputed, nor can its orders be ignored. That the husbands subsequently converted does not mean that any Syariah court decision must take priority, as there are non-Muslim parties involved over which the religious courts have no authority.

The police are now claiming they are “sandwiched” between the syariah and civil courts but the bottom line is that they have failed to obey court orders that the children be returned to their mothers.

Fair-minded Malaysians, regardless of their faiths, have reasons to be angry – it is the job of the police to enforce the laws and NOT to interpret the laws. If the police is unsure, they should ask the Attorney-General.

It is preposterous for the police to ­suggest that these affected children be placed in welfare homes when it is so clear that it should be the mothers who should have the priority in these cases. Let the children grow up and decide what faith they wish to profess.

Firdaus Husni, the Bar Council’s constitutional committee chairman, reportedly said that although Article 121 (1A) of the Federal Constitution stipulates that civil courts have no jurisdiction over any matter within the purview of Syariah courts, the law was not meant to give the latter ­superiority over the former.

Or, as the Ipoh High Court judge puts it, “In as much as a Civil High Court would restrain from and refuse to entertain a custody application of a parent in a marriage under Muslim law, so also would a Syariah Court refrain from and refuse to entertain a custody application in a civil marriage.

“Both legal systems in the Civil Courts and the Syariah Courts and the streams flowing from it must be kept pure and that involves respecting each other’s jurisdiction as conferred by the Federal Constitution, the federal laws and the State Enactments.”

Can we see some common sense, decency and justice prevail instead of letting religion, whether imagined or otherwise, cloud our judgments?

Malaysians have never seen the police ignore the orders of the High Court judges – and that has set off a dangerous ­precedent because it has given the impression that these judges, just like the state executives, are powerless.

We have not become a theocratic state, at least not yet, but those with religious ­powers appear to now enjoy the upper hand, wielding the kind of clout that has never been seen before.

Against this highly disturbing trend, with the push for the implementation of hudud laws, it is shocking that there are non-Muslims who are prepared to place their future in the hands of theologian-­politicians.

I do not think that our founding fathers, especially Tunku Abdul Rahman, would want Malaysia to head in this direction. It has to stop.

TWO incidents, which took place over the past one week, have really troubled me. These are real incidents that this writer has experienced up close and personal.

They are a strong reminder about the power of perceptive reality, and how the actions of a few can have more far-reaching ramifications than one can possibly imagine.

The first involves a student friend from Hong Kong who was planning to make his first visit to Kuala Lumpur. He had wanted to fly to Malaysia with his Malaysian friend on Malaysia Airlines.

But his father insisted that they flew on Cathay Pacific instead. He did not want them to take chances with MAS following the bad publicity over the MH 370 incident. In short, as far as he was concerned, our national airline has been deemed unsafe.

This young man, however, was rational and did not buy into his father’s fears. But because the old man was paying for the air ticket, it didn’t make sense to argue with him, and so he took his advice.

One has to ask, how many passengers did MAS lose in this period simply because there is such a strong perception about its safety record, although the reality is that our airline has one of the best records in the aviation industry.

In the other case, a British national, who made her maiden trip to Malaysia last week, was concerned over Malaysia’s purported strict adherence to Islamic rules. So she was careful to pack the most conservative clothes for her trip.

She and her lawyer husband had been reading news reports in the United Kingdom about Malaysia’s plans to impose syariah laws, the raids by religious authorities, and how the country was increasingly turning conservative. And yes, my friend has also read about the Chinese tourist who was abducted at the Semporna resort.

It didn’t end there. On the plane, she was advised by the passenger seated next to her that she needed to be careful when walking the streets of KL because of the many snatch thefts! The passenger, a fellow Briton, happened to be an expatriate who has stayed in Malaysia for the last 20 years. So, she was regarded as someone who could speak with authority based on experience.

Imagine what must have been going through her mind even before she touched down in our world-renowned KLIA. And so, despite the humid weather in KL, she not only brought along thick clothing, but was all dressed up to fit into a “conservative society”. Imagine how shocked she was to see many Malaysians walking about in shorts and skirts.

Let’s be honest here. The current perceptions about our country are bad. And we all know that perception can be more powerful than reality.

Like it or not, Malaysia has a serious image problem right now and we really need to get our act together.

We can be defensive and act like those silly politicians who will be quick to blame the Western media for putting us in a bad light with their biased reporting. But the reality is that we are responsible, in one way or another, for this negative media image.

Those of us in the media business know instinctively what kind of news will make it to the international press and we seem to be churning out a lot of such news in recent times.

No amount of money spent to promote tourism (this is Visit Malaysia Year, after all) will work if we do not tackle these problems at source.

Don’t we hate it, as Malaysians, when we hear foreigners talking about us in this manner? But in our heart of hearts, we know some of these are true, and the truth hurts.

Of course, we get upset when Kuala Lumpur is listed as one of the most dangerous and unsafe cities in the world. Just Google it.

We can moan and question the credibility of these websites but the point is that there will be thousands, if not millions, of tourists who will surf the Net every hour all over the world and they will read such negative reports. After all, we also do our own Internet research when we want to visit a city overseas.

And the fact of the matter is that we know that many petty criminals do roam our streets, and we all have stories to share about what happened to friends and relatives.

Perception aside, it will be better if these sites can tell surfers that Malaysia is safe because there is always a strong presence of the police at our airports and the streets, as well as the major tourist centres.

Just check out Changi Airport in Singapore. We always seem to be able to spot armed policemen around and even in Orchard Road, we will see them.

Likewise, at our isolated diving resorts in Sabah, we really need to station well-armed soldiers there. The owners cannot have the right to turn away our men in uniform because the national image is at stake here.

We cannot keep on giving verbal promises to tourists that these abductions are isolated cases and that Sabah is safe when we are never sure when the next abduction will happen. To these Filipina kidnappers, as long as such places are not well-secured, it will be business as usual.

The Semporna waterfront town itself, located in Tawau, also needs a serious facelift, if we wish to meet the image and standards of an international tourist gateway.

Just key in the words “Semporna, dirty” in Google search and see what you get.

Tourism is Malaysia’s second largest foreign exchange earner and the seventh largest contributor to the economy, contributing RM47.2bil to our Gross National Income (GNI) in 2012.

By 2020, Malaysia is expected to earn RM168bil from the targeted 36 million tourist arrivals under the Malaysia Tourism Transformational Plan (MTTP), according to Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.

In 2012, Malaysia welcomed 25 million foreign tourists, placing it firmly as the 10th most popular tourism destination in the world, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). It ranked 13th in international tourism receipts of RM60.6bil.

According to Nazri, “we are targeting high net-worth tourists and continue to welcome arrivals to our high-end world’s best hotels and resorts”.

This writer knows for a fact that this minister works hard, even until the late hours, when he is on his overseas trips, meeting officials and tour operators, to get them to come to Malaysia.

But we do not want him to labour in vain. We also need to ensure that tourists feel safe and that in their minds, Malaysia is a safe place for them to visit. After all, in case we forget, there are many choices out there. Like switching airlines because of perception, heading to another country is also just a click away.