Non-Muslim as PM? Malaysians Debate Issue
Hazlin Hassan – Straits Times Indonesia
Kuala Lumpur. A controversy over an alleged secret plot by Christian pastors has turned into a debate over whether the Constitution allows a non-Muslim to be prime minister of Muslim-majority Malaysia.
Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) vice-president Mahfuz Omar said the party would not oppose a non-Muslim premier as the Constitution does not bar a non-Muslim from becoming prime minister.
“PAS cannot stop the Constitution,” he said, but added: “It will not happen.”
The scenario is highly unlikely because Muslims make up about 60 percent of Malaysia's population of 28 million. Christians make up just 9 percent.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang jumped in too, saying the party would never back any proposal to change Malaysia's official religion from Islam.
The row erupted after the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia daily ran a front-page report over the weekend quoting blogs that claimed Christian pastors were conspiring with the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) to make Christianity the country's official religion and install a Christian PM. Utusan is owned by the United Malays National Organization, the dominant party in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Opposition DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the issue was an attempt by BN to divert attention from its mistakes.
'”ts poor economic mismanagement and policy failures have resulted in the prices of petrol and sugar going up,” Lim said. Instead of explaining the price hikes, Utusan had “taken the easy way out' by creating a 'dangerous lie against the Christians, an easy target to bully.”
Amid the furore, constitutional experts noted that Malaysia does not have an official religion.
Syahredzan Johan, the Bar Council's constitutional law committee chief, cited the Constitution as stating that “Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation,” and he pointed out the word “official” was nowhere in the provision.
BN's Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok said there was nothing wrong with a Christian prime minister, pointing out that neither race nor religion was a criterion.
“If an Iban, a Bidayuh, a Kadazandusun, Murut, Kelabit, a Chinese or Indian Malaysian can satisfy the provision of Article 43 of the Constitution, he can be the prime minister of the country,” Tan Sri Dompok said in a statement.
Religion is considered a sensitive issue in Malaysia and politicians on all sides have urged for calm in recent days.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said police would investigate if “there was any truth in what was reported and whether the newspaper concerned had a role in playing up the sensitive issue.”
Amid rising tensions, Malay rights group Perkasa has said that there is nothing to prevent a non-Muslim from becoming prime minister, but insisted that only a Malay could take the post.
Its secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali said: “Perkasa as a Malay rights group wants a Malay prime minister to represent the interests of a majority race.”
Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali slammed the Bar Council's Syahredzan as a “traitor to Islam.”
“The constitutional lawyer has a narrow brain, or is he making the statement for the sake of wanting to be popular among the Bar Council lawyers who are mainly non-Muslims? Please don't be a traitor to Islam,” he was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Insider, a news Web site.
Interestingly, one of the blogs quoted by Utusan Malaysia in its Christian conspiracy report, marahku.blogspot.com, appeared to have deleted all posts yesterday. The other blogger, Zakhir Mohamed, of bigdogdotcom.wordpress.com, has reportedly refused to apologize.
