To some people especially those who work for the government but acts like the opposition, having to accept the fact that Malaysia is not a secular nation like what opposition supporters would like to believe where they held on to the Federal Court’s result in 1988 which stated that Malaysia is a secular country.
This is the conclusion that writer could make after reading all the responses made soon after the final paperwork presentation for the seminar, presented by Dr. Muhammad Uthman El Muhammady yesterday.
Even I did not even budge while listening to Dr. Uthman’s presentation and I think that his presentation are based on books and opinions of Muslim and Western scholars regarding secularism, not made by Dr. Uthman himself. Obviously, the word secular has is not mentioned in the Quran because it is a word that was introduced by the West to picture a ruling system which separates religion and governing a nation.
Besides, just as explained by Dr. Uthman, the Chief Justice of Malaysia, when the result was made, Tun Salleh Abas (who is also a former DUN and PAS’s Exco) did not state that Malaysia is a secular country. Instead, he said that the law in this country is secular.
The only person who says that Tun Salleh said that Malaysia is a secular country would be DAP’s National Chairman, Karpal Singh. Obviously Karpal loves to hold on to it because DAP have been waiting for this since they were established – to form a Republic of Malaysia.
To opposition supporters who love to picture Malaysia as a secular country, Karpal’s opinion is the only statement that they have left to believe that Malaysia is a secular country, after all the matters that are stated in the Constitution showed that we are not heading to such direction.
There is no way that a secular country would put Islam as its official religion in the Constitution. Even the word secular, has never been in our Constitution. Unless, if Anwar takes over.
Overall, this seminar did not just denied those who said that this country practices secular understanding, the seminar also confirmed that the way this country is managed do follow the Islamic way and like what has been set by Fiqh members.
From the royal institution, government and current administration, all follows the Islamic way, although there are still more things for us to cover, but it fulfills all of the basic things.
The statement obviously shocked opposition supporters or even government supporters because it came from professionals and Islamic scholars who are famous internationally. As for government supporters, we can be certain that our government fulfils all of the Islamic requirements which is confirmed by Islamic scholars.
All of these should be able to convince rakyat that Barisan Nasional is their best answer for the coming GE13. Either that or Islamic rights might just fade.
If there are things that are better than this, I would really like to hear it.
