Oct 10 — Greetings in the name of our precious Lord and Saviour,
Christ Jesus.
As we cross over from the Jubilee Year of Malaysia into the next
50 years, we reaffirm the foundational basis of the formation of this beloved
nation of ours. We will strive together with all Malaysians and our government,
both at the federal and state level in working on the God-given task of nation
building.
Fifty years ago, on Malaysia Day, a great Malaysian nation was
formed out of the partnership of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. One of
the foundational bases of this coming together of state entities concerned
agreement on the role of religion and religious freedom. It is a great tragedy
for Malaysia that this foundational pillar of nation building is being
progressively undermined and eroded. Indeed we must say with all seriousness
that Malaysia’s next 50 years must start with nation re-building where this
fundamental building block of the nation will be duly repositioned at the heart
of our national and communal life.
We would reiterate that Sabah and Sarawak consented to form
Malaysia in 1963 with Islam as the religion of the federation on the express
condition that there will be complete freedom of religion without any hindrance
placed on other religions. This is found in all the constitutional documents
which record the concerns, discussions, assurances and agreements which finally
led to the solemn execution of the Malaysia Agreement. Thus the Government
Paper “Malaysia and Sarawak” published by Authority of the Government of
Sarawak dated 4 Jan 1962 (reflected in the corresponding Government of North
Borneo Paper) states unequivocally as follows:
“People have wondered whether the fact that Islam is the
official religion of the Federation of Malaya would affect religious freedom in
Sarawak as part of Malaysia. This has been clarified at the recent Consultative
Committee Meeting. Although Malaysia would have Islam as the official religion
of the enlarged Federation there would be no hindrance placed on the practice
of other religions. Complete freedom of religion would be guaranteed in the
Federal Constitution. Sarawak has at the present no established religion and it
would not be required to accept Islam as its State religion ...”
We acknowledge and will continue to uphold Article 3 of the
Federal Constitution which provides that Islam is the religion of the
Federation. It is carefully recorded in the constitutional documents that this
provision which makes Islam the religion of the Federation for official
purposes will not fetter the religious freedom of adherents of other faiths.
Hence Article 3 clearly states in the same breath that all people are free to
practice their religion in peace and harmony in any part of the country.
We therefore find it completely unacceptable that what are
common practices of the Church in Sabah and Sarawak for hundreds of years and
indeed for generations of Christians even before the very idea of Malaysia was
conceived are now proscribed by administrative orders and laws. What we
consider to be a most serious breach of the foundational pillar pertaining to
religion and religious freedom is the unrelenting assault on the right of
Bumiputera Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christians to the use of the Alkitab and
the word “Allah” as well as the Iban-speaking Christians to refer to the
Creator God. In this regard, we are compelled to reiterate and reassert:
(a) that the word “Allah” is an integral part of, and inherent
to the practice of the Christian faith by Bahasa Malaysia-speaking churches in
Sabah and Sarawak and Christians in and from these 2 states;
(b) that the Churches expect that the guarantee of religious
freedom enshrined in the Federal Constitution when Sabah and Sarawak joined
Malaya to form the Malaysian nation will be fully respected and honoured; and
(c) that the 10-point agreement by the Federal Cabinet on the
printing, importation and distribution of the Alkitab in which the word “Allah”
is an integral part of the Bahasa Malaysia Holy Scriptures and also on the
practice of the Christian faith in Bahasa Malaysia-speaking churches based on
the Alkitab will be fully honoured.
Two thirds of the Church in Malaysia consist of 1.6 million
Bumiputera Christians of Sabah and Sarawak who use the Bahasa Malaysia language
of worship in addition to their native languages. With the greatest respect to
the respective authorities, whether they are the legislative, executive or
judiciary, we ask that religious bigotry, racism and extremism should not be
perpetuated and allowed to fester and poison our Malaysian nation. Specifically
with regard to the use of the word “Allah”, proscribing the use of the word
“Allah” would turn instantly these native Bumiputera into law-breakers in the
very land of which they are the sons of the soil. This is abhorrent, wholly
unacceptable and a flagrant betrayal of the Malaysia Agreement which guarantees
the inalienable rights of non-Muslims in Sarawak and Sabah to religious
freedom. The Bumiputera church will continue to use the Bahasa Malaysia Alkitab
together with the word “Allah” both of which are fundamental to all aspects of
the profession and practice of the Christian faith.
This year we celebrate the fiftieth year of the formation of
Malaysia. At the threshold of the next 50 years of our national life, we shall
continue to strive and thrive as a rainbow nation of many tongues, ethnicities
and creeds. We will do so together as a nation working together on the common
platform constructed on the 5 principles of the Rukun Negara. In our commitment
to “Belief in God”, let there be mutual acceptance and honour of each other’s
religious practices, beliefs, precepts and doctrines. In our commitment to the
twin principles of the “Rule of Law” and “Supremacy of the Constitution”, let
all Malaysians and our respective governing institutions understand, adhere to
and apply with integrity the true meaning and intent of the foundational and
fundamental provisions of the Constitution which is the supreme law of the
Federation.
Let us together seek to build this beloved nation for the good
of all peoples so that all can enjoy the fruits of prosperity and goodness in
this land the Almighty God has blessed us with.
May Almighty God bless us Malaysian and keep us as a nation, may
His face shine upon us and give us peace.
God bless Malaysia!
Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/religious-freedom-a-founding-pillar-of-malaysia-sabah-council-of-churches-a
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