He said the explanation would not only be done at formal meetings but also informal meetings between leaders and members of the component parties.
He said: "We, in the Barisan Nasional, have already got a good understanding and by explaining Malaysia's position as an Islamic country to other Barisan Nasional members would further enhance the cooperation between UMNO and other component parties."
He added that based on the statements of Barisan Nasional component party leaders, they supported and endorsed the Prime Minister’s declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic State.
Mohd Khalil has made a most shocking statement. If, as he claims, the leaders of the other Barisan Nasional parties like MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP have endorsed Mahathir’s declaration that Malaysia is already an Islamic State under UMNO rule, then why is it necessary for UMNO to embark on a campaign, whether formal or informal, to explain to other Barisan Nasional component parties throughout the country, when such an explanation should be made by the leadership of the respective Barisan Nasional parties.
UMNO only has to conduct a nation-wide campaipn to convince the other Barisan Nasional parties to endorse UMNO’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State when the support given by the leaders of the other Barisan Nasional leaders, whether Gerakan’s Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik or MCA’s Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik, had been made without forethought or the authority and mandate of their respective party conferences or memberships.
If Mahathir had made the declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State under UMNO rule during the Sarawak state general elections, and this had been openly endorsed by the other Sarawak Barisan Nasional leaders like the SUPP President, Datuk Seri Dr. George Chan as had been done by Keng Yaik and Liong Sik in Peninsular Malaysia, the Sarawak state general elections outcome would be very different and there would have been no landslide Barisan Nasional victory.
As Mahathir’s made the declaration at the Gerakan conference two days after the Sarawak state general elections on Thursday, September 27, either the Sarawak voters had been “taken for a ride” by the Barisan Nasional leadership on the issue (as one of the main Barisan Nasional campaign themes in Sarawak was to reject Islamic state by voting against the Opposition) or Mahathir had been encouraged and “inspired” by the landslide Barisan Nasional victory in Sarawak to openly declare at the Gerakan Conference two days after the polls that Malaysia is an Islamic state under UMNO rule.
The crucial question of nation-building in Malaysia is not over what variant of Islamic State, ala-UMNO or ala-PAS, the nation should have but whether Malaysia is a secular or Islamic State. Once the principle that Malaysia is a secular and not an Islamic state is conceded, then the argument would be on the type of Islamic State, whether ala-UMNO, ala-PAS or some other variant.
I would seriously call on the other Barisan Nasional parties, whether
MCA, Gerakan, MIC or SUPP, to give this matter the most serious consideration
as not to concede a fundamental principle of nation-building and the Constitution
on the secular basis of the nation for the sake of partisan political gain
- and to reaffirm that Malaysia shall continue to be a democratic, secular
and morality-based Malaysia.
(2/10/2001)