All is not lost, decision confined to HERALD only

Jan 29, 2015

PUTRAJAYA: On Jan 21, the five-man bench headed by Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Embong took an hour to return a unanimous verdict in the negative to the Church’s final attempt to revive its appeal.

The panel held that procedural unfairness did not arise in the earlier bench led by the country’s top judge, and that the Church did not meet the threshold for review under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court. With no more legal avenues to pursue for the right to use the word ‘Allah’ in the Catholic weekly, HERALD, its editor Fr Lawrence Andrew SJ, on Jan 21 expressed disappointment at the Federal Court’s dismissal of the appeal, while lawyers, however, said it did not mean the issue of non-Muslims’ right to use the word was settled.

Fr Lawrence said it was an important constitutional case on the right to profess one’s faith and said he hoped that the rights of minorities, including the poor and the underprivileged, would not be trampled upon.

When asked about the opposing argument by the lawyer of a Muslim religious group that allowing the review would “open up old wounds and cause public unrest,” Fr Lawrence said he did not understand how trouble could arise as ‘Allah’ had been used for so long by Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christians.

“Malay has been the language in the Church in Malaya for centuries and I have shown evidence that BM was already a language of worship for hundreds of years in devotional and catechetical books.

“And during this period, there was no trouble whatsoever, so I don’t see any possibility of evoking trouble,” the priest said.

Despite appearing to be the end of the road, the Church’s lead counsel, Datuk Dr Cyrus Das said the issue was not necessarily over.

It could be raised through other cases, Das said, adding that the matter of constitutional rights of minorities could still be taken up.

The merits of the Church’s case in the dispute over using ‘Allah’ needed to be raised in the courts in other cases on the same topic, especially on the Home Minister’s powers to ban words and the scope of prohibitions.

“There are other constitutional issues” that have not been addressed, and these can be taken up in other cases,” said Das outside the courtroom at Putrajaya’s Palace of Justice.

Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, president of the Muslim Lawyers Association appeared to agree, saying that the decision was only confined to the HERALD.

It simply meant that the Church could not use the word ‘Allah’ in the publication.

“Muslims are unhappy because the word ‘Allah’ was used to refer to a non-Muslim God.

“But it is not a blanket ruling that non-Muslims cannot use the word,” he added.

The Church had submitted 28 questions of law at the leave stage on administrative and constitutional law, as well as questions of general principles.

That, however, was rejected by a Federal Court panel chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria in June last year in a 4-3 majority ruling. --The Malaysian Insider