By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has fixed tomorrow to hear the Home Ministry’s bid to stay its ruling that the Catholic church can publish the word “Allah” referring to the Christian God in the Bahasa Malaysia section of its paper, Herald.

Senior federal counsel Datuk Kamaluddin Md Said confirmed with The Malaysian Insider that the hearing is fixed to be heard at 2.30pm in the Appellate and Special Powers division of the High Court.

“Normally, the case will be presented before the same judge,” Kamaludin replied when asked if a different judge had been appointed to hear the case.

The Dec 31 landmark decision in favour of the Catholic church was made by judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan, who had been earlier transferred out of the Appellate and Special Powers division late last year.

In her judgment, Lau noted that Herald had the right to use the word to instruct and educate Catholics based on Articles 11 and 12 of the Federal Constitution.

The Home Ministry had filed the application to suspend the court order from being carried out earlier this morning.

Herald’s editor, Father Lawrence Andrew, was taken aback at how quickly the court set the date for hearing the ministry’s stay application.

“We are perplexed as to how the Government can obtain a date for the hearing of a stay application of the decision in the Herald case within 24 hours of an appeal being filed on a matter which the High Court had ruled in our favour, and in which there are no new grounds for any urgency other than the claim that some people are unhappy and protesting against the Court decision,” he responded in a written statement emailed to the media.

Lawrence disclosed that the online version of Herald had been hacked three times and “malicious profanities displayed” following the High Court decision.

The latest cyber vandalism took place this morning.

“There was a loud screeching sound when I clicked onto an article. The article disappeared from the screen,” the priest recounted to The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

He has yet to report the incidents to the police but said that he understood several police reports had been filed against the Herald despite the court decision.

“Various newspapers were allowed to attack the High Court decision with one mainstream paper even having the audacity to make references to the burning of churches in India so as to cause fear to us,” Lawrence added.

“All of this has been done with the knowledge of the Government and yet no action has been taken against these people in what amounts to a contempt of Court, intimidation and the making of subjudice comments on the matters which the Court had decided on and are pending appeal,” he pointed out.

“We believe these actions to create a climate of fear and a perceived threat to national security so as to pressure the court into reversing its decision.

“We therefore believe that it will be difficult to get a fair and impartial hearing of this matter,” Lawrence said.

The Herald caters to some 850,000 Catholics in the country and publishes in four languages: English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil. Its sale is limited to church premises.

Malaysia’s 27 million population is mainly Muslim.

Courtesy: TheMalaysianInsider