Call on all Malaysians and civil society to speak up to preserve  the 44-year democratic, secular and  multi-religious constitution and not  to allow it to be transformed into an Islamic State


Speech
- Penang DAP forum on “Should Malaysia be an Islamic State” 
by Lim Kit Siang

(Penang,  Thursday): Just before coming to the forum, there was the news report that the Muslim Scholars Association of Malaysia (PUM) had issued a strong salvo against the Bar Council telling it not to interfere in Islamic matters and it  called on the government to amend the Legal Profession Act to prevent the Bar Council from issuing statements concerning Islam.  

The PUM declared that it was against the freedom of expression supported by the Bar Council if it included any individuals or organisations that are non-Islam speaking as they like on Islamic matters.  

This is the latest development in the controversy sparked off by the PUM memorandum to the Conference of Rulers  urging action against six writers for denigrating Islam and the institution of ulama.  

This is a most disturbing development with far-reaching consequences for democracy, human rights and nation-building in a plural Malaysia - and raises the question whether the opposition to the establishment of an Islamic State in Malaysia will one day be equated with attempts to denigrate Islam and declared  impermissible in Malaysia although it is in no way anti-Islam.  

Such a possibility would have been regarded as “unthinkable” six months ago and it is an indication of the tectonic shift in Malaysian nation-building in the past six months that it is not that “unthinkable” ever since the unilateral declaration by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on September 29, 2001 that Malaysia is and always had been an Islamic state  

After Mahathir’s decaration, PAS MPs  told DAP MPs in Parliament that the DAP was the only political party objecting to the establishment of an Islamic State, as even all the other Barisan Nasional component parties such as MCA, Gerakan and MIC, also endorsed Mahathir’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State.  

Mahathir’s declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state is a fundamental breach of the 44-year Social Contract reached by our forefathers from the three communities in the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and reaffirmed by the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak in 1962 on the formation of Malaysia founding the nation as a democratic, secular, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive state with Islam as the official religion and not as an Islamic state. 

For 44 years, the mainstream nation-building agenda was to develop and sustain the democratic, secular and multi-religious nature of the Malaysian Constitution and voices calling for an Islamic state were at the periphery; but overnight, with Mahathir’s declaration, the controversy over what type of an Islamic state Malaysia  should become has hijacked the mainstream nation-building agenda.  

In the past six months, the DAP had been  a lone voice as if  in the wilderness seeking to draw the attention of Malaysians to the tectonic shift in the nation-building process but we have found it very heavy-going as there had been little awareness, and therefore concern and alarm,  at the  far-reaching political, legal, socio-economic and citizenship implications for all Malaysians when the 44-year democratic, secular and multi-religious nature of the Constitution is jettisoned in favour of an Islamic state - whether ala-UMNO or ala-PAS.  

Malaysians who want to defend the 44-year Social Contract for  a democratic, secular, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive Malaysia must be aware that they are in a race against time, for if in the next general elections expected in 12 to 18 months, the Barisan Nasional is given strong support, it would be regarded as a mandate to jettison the 44-year Social Contract and embark Malaysia on the road of an Islamic State.

All Malaysians and the civil society should  speak up to preserve  the 44-year democratic, secular and  multi-religious constitution and not to allow it to be transformed into an Islamic State, as the  time for Malaysians to stand up to be counted in defence of the Malaysian Social Contract is now and not after the next general elections - when it will be too late.  

(28/2/2002)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman