Call on Keng Yaik to admit and apologise for his mistake in publicly claiming after the  “929 declaration” that Malaysia had always been an Islamic State in the past 44 years since Merdeka in 1957 and to give full support to “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” campaign

(Penang,  Saturday):  The “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” people awareness campaign is to raise consciousness among Malaysians on two important matters: firstly, that the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and “social contract” reached by our forefathers from the major communities and the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak that Malaysia is a democratic, secular, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state is facing the greatest test and crisis in 44 years; and secondly, that time is fast  running out  as  there are less than 12 months before the next general election when Malaysians must take a final stand whether to defend and preserve  the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and “social contract” or let Malaysia embark on the largely “irreversible” road of an Islamic State. 

After the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had made the “shock announcement” at the Gerakan national delegates conference on September 29 last year that Malaysia was an Islamic State, the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik had been one of the strongest advocates of the “929 declaration”, asserting that Malaysia had always been an Islamic state in the past 44 years since Merdeka in 1957.  

In fact, Keng Yaik had even publicly propositioned to the MCA to work together to counter what he described as the DAP’s “dirty tactics” and to stop the DAP from “misleading and confusing” the Chinese community by playing up the issue of Malaysia as an Islamic country “for its own political ends and not in the interest of unity and democracy".  

Let me assure Keng Yaik and the Gerakan leaders that the “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” is no “dirty tactics” or “numbers game” but a very serious and responsible political and nation-building campaign to defend and preserve the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and “social contract” as the foundation of a multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural Malaysian nation for all times.  

Keng Yaik and Gerakan leaders have called on Malaysians to oppose the Islamic state advocated by PAS.  DAP agrees with Gerakan on this, and DAP leaders had frankly told PAS leaders when we were in the Barisan Alternative that the Islamic state concept is not compatible with democracy, power-sharing in a plural society, human rights and individual freedoms, women’s rights and social tolerance. 

DAP agrees with Gerakan that the PAS Islamic State goes against the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and “social contract” of Malaysia as a democratic, secular, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive Malaysia with Islam as the official religion but not as an Islamic state.  The question is why Gerakan does not agree with DAP that the UMNO Islamic State in Mahathir’s “929 declaration” equally contravenes the 1957 Merdeka Constitutionan and “social contract”.  

I must confess my disbelief and consternation when Keng Yaik publicly asserted that Malaysia had always been an Islamic state since Merdeka in 1957. I did not know whether he had suffered a serious memory lapse or he has decided to rewrite Malaysian constitutional and political history.  

I would advise Keng Yaik to refer back to the Reid Commission Constitution Report 1957, the Alliance Government White Paper on the Reid Commission Constitution Report 1957 and the Cobbold Commission Report 1963 where they were categorically of one voice that that Malaysia is not an Islamic state but a secular state.  

In fact, apart from Mahathir, Keng Yaik should know better than anyone in Cabinet and government about the essence of the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and “social contract” as he had served under all the four Prime Ministers in the country having first stood as an Alliance candidate in the 1969 general election under the first Prime Minister and Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman.  

Keng Yaik should know that Tunku, who held office for 15 years as head of government, two years as Chief Minister 1955-1957 and 13 years as Prime Minister 1957-1960, never knew that Malaysia was an Islamic State or he would not have declared so in Parliament in 1956 and even once remarked publicly in 1959 that the attainment of an Islamic state would require the drowning of every non-Malay in the country!  

The second Prime Minister, Tun Razak, and the third Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn also never knew that Malaysia was an Islamic state.  

Even Mahathir, the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, never knew that Malaysia was an Islamic state in his first 20 years in office until his “929 declaration” at the Gerakan conference on September 29 last year!  

For 32 years while serving under the four Prime Ministers in Malaysia, Keng Yaik had been declaring that Malaysia was not an Islamic state but a democratic, secular and multi-religious nation - the last time only a few days before the “929 declaration” during the Sarawak state general election which went to the polls three days before the “929 declaration”. 

Even the highest judicial officers in the land in the past 44 years never knew that Malaysia was an Islamic state. This was why in 1962 the then Lord President Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim had written, and in 1988, the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas had delivered judgement of the powerful five-judge Federal Court in Che Omar bin Che Soh vs Public Prosecutor (1988), that Malaysia is a secular and not an Islamic state.  

Can Keng Yaik explain what made him go against everything he had stood for 32 years about Malaysia being a democratic, secular and mulit-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state? 

One of the hopes of the “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” campaign is that the call for Malaysians to stand up to defend and preserve the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and “social contract” could   reach all political leaders especially those in the Barisan Nasional to impress on them that the vital issues at stake concerning fundamental rights of Malaysians and future generations as well as the best welfare of a plural society like Malaysia should not be trifled with for short-term political gains, whether personal or party. 

For this reason, I make a personal and direct call to Keng Yaik to admit and apologise for his mistake in publicly asserting after the  “929 declaration” that Malaysia had always been an Islamic State in the past 44 years since Merdeka in 1957, and to declare his support for the “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” campaign and to remain true to his political stand for the past 32 years.

(18/5/2002)