October 25, 2014

MALAYSIA: The Religion of Malaysia Shall Be Islam Where Sharia Law Rules. Great Piece!


PART I - THE STATES, RELIGION AND LAW OF THE FEDERATION

Article 3

(1) Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.

(2) In every State other than States not having a Ruler the position of the Ruler as the Head of the religion of Islam in his State in the manner and to the extent acknowledged and declared by the Constitution, all rights, privileges, prerogatives and powers enjoyed by him as Head of that religion, are unaffected and unimpaired; but in any acts, observance or ceremonies with respect to which the Conference of Rulers has agreed that they should extend to the Federation as a whole each of the other Rulers shall in his capacity of Head of the religion of Islam authorize the Yang di-pertuan Agong to represent him.

(3). The Constitution of the States of Malacca, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak shall each make provision for conferring on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall be Head of the religion of Islam in that State.

(4) Nothing in this Article derogates from any other provision of this Constitution.

(5) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall be the Head of the religion of Islam in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan; and for this purpose Parliament may by law make provisions for regulating Islamic religious affairs and for constituting a Council to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in matters relating to the religion of Islam.

************
The Malaysian Insider
written by OMG! staff
June 18, 2014

Sibu MP Oscar Ling Chai Yew had asked the government to state if hudud contradicted the Federal Constitution, in a question addressed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

In his written reply to Ling, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said the formation of Malaysia was based on the Islamic administration of the Malay sultanates and that the Malay sultans were heads of Islam in their respective states.

But what did the Reid Commission Report say about religion in 1957 just prior to Merdeka? I am indebted to any historian who can explain how, in the Federal Constitution, the contents of Article 3 on religion, came to differ from what had been recommended by the Reid Report or the memorandum submitted by the Alliance Party (the precursor of Barisan Nasional today).

Before we delve into that, let us ask ourselves if the way we treat our fellow Malaysian citizens today is humanistic and reasonable or if it is oppressive.

For example, there are people who talk about the power of the majority. They forget that, in First World countries, it is the duty of the majority to protect minorities, not to impose their will on them!

All those who practise Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism or any other minority religion in Malaysia today, feel the erosion of their rights to freedom of religion as enshrined in Article 11 of the Constitution.

We read of officials barging into a wedding ceremony, disrupting it with guests going away hungry, and taking away the bride for investigation. Black vans drive up to a legitimate Bible depository, the Bible Society, and seize 321 Bibles; when the nation’s highest prosecutor the Attorney-General says no law was broken by the Bible Society, state bastions of religious regulatory power rudely reject his authority.

Other officials disrupted a Chinese funeral ceremony of grieving relatives and took away the body. Later, the court ruled she was never a Muslim and they transport the coffin back for the original ceremony to resume.

So let’s reach back into history and the opinion of the 5-man Reid Commission regarding religion. These are excerpts from their 1957 Report:

“In the memorandum submitted by the Alliance (precursor of the Barisan Nasional) it was stated that the religion of the Federation shall be Islam. There was universal agreement that if any such provision were inserted, it must be made clear that it would not in any way affect the civil rights of the non-Muslims. The observance of this principle shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religions and shall not imply that the state is not a secular state. There is nothing in the draft Constitution to affect the continuance of the present position in the States with regard to the recognition of Islam or to prevent the recognition of Islam in the Federation by legislation or otherwise in any respect which does not prejudice the civil rights of individual non-Muslims. The majority of us think that it is best to leave the matter on this basis, looking to the fact that Counsel for the Rulers said to us: ‘It is Their Highnesses considered view that it would not be desirable to insert some declaration such as has been suggested that the Muslim Faith or the Islamic Faith be the established religion of the Federation. Their Highnesses are not in favor of such a declaration being inserted and that is a matter of specific instruction in which I myself have played very little part’.”

Justice Halim bin Abdul Hamid from Pakistan, gave a sole dissenting view which includes this paragraph:

“Islam shall be the religion of the state of Malaya but nothing in this Article shall prevent any citizen professing any religion other than Islam to profess, practice and propagate that religion nor shall any citizen be under any disability by reason of his being not a Muslim.”

So we see that what really came out in the Federal Constitution was;

(a) neither precisely the majority view (which included a specific statement that Malaya having a state religion shall not imply that it was not a secular state);

(b) nor the sole dissenting view (which allowed any citizen professing any religion other than Islam to profess, practice and propagate that religion and said that no citizen should be under any disability by reason of his being not a Muslim);

(c) nor Their Royal Highnesses considered view that “it would not be desirable and they were not in favor of inserting some declaration such as has been suggested that the Muslim Faith or the Islamic Faith be the established religion of the Federation”;

but a version that proved more restrictive to persons who were not Muslims, in that they could not proselytise to Muslims, but Muslims suffered no such restriction - it was a biased structure and there was no saving clause that “having a state religion shall not imply that Malaya was not a secular state”.

And we note also the intention of Their Royal Highnesses the Rulers at that initial stage was not even to have a declaration that Islam should be the established religion of the Federation.

Yet the Alliance request to have a state religion aided by the sole dissenting opinion of the Reid Commission, took precedence over Their Royal Highnesses considered views. Had the Royal views then prevailed, Malaysia today would have a Constitution that was unmistakably secular and none of the incidents above would have happened.

It seems that Malayans in 1957 and subsequently Malaysians after 1963, were somehow thwarted out of a clearly defines secular Federal Constitution that should have been ours. Who did it?

One is stunned by the wisdom of Their Royal Highnesses even back then 57 years ago, in stating that “it would not be desirable and they were not in favour of inserting some declaration such as has been suggested that the Muslim Faith or the Islamic Faith be the established religion of the Federation”.

Such prescience takes the breath away.

It was as if Their Royal Highnesses the Rulers in 1957 already felt an unease over the unhappy things that could arise to disturb peace and harmony among the different peoples of Malaysia. And they were right. – June 18, 2014.

No comments: