COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
25 June 2014

Thank you, Datuk Mohamed Adzib Mohd Isa. Thank you for confirming what commentators and lawyers have been saying since the Federal Court decided not to give leave to the Catholic Church to appeal to the apex court to overturn an order stopping it from using the word Allah in its weekly newspaper.

A few hours after the court decision, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying that the court decision would only impact the Catholic Herald.

At the same time, Putrajaya assured Christians that they could use Allah in their worship services and proudly proclaimed that the infamous 10-point solution put together in April 2011, just before the last Sarawak elections, was still in place.

Among other things, the 10-pointer allows the import of Malay-language bibles.

The Malaysian Insider, lawyers and political observers rubbished the Putrajaya statement, predicting that religious zealots and others masquerading as Islamic religious experts would seize on the Federal Court ruling and restrict further the Constitutional right of Christians to practise their faith.

It was also pointed out that the 10-point resolution was worthless, and that Putrajaya’s assurances were useless.

Today, the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) showed how much credence Malaysians should give any statement from Putrajaya.

Mohamad Adzib, the Umno man playing the role of Mais chairman, said that the council would continue seizing Malay-language bibles in Selangor.

Worse yet, using all the charm one has come to associate with Umno, he warned that those found distributing the Malay-language bibles would be arrested.

In short, the pompous Umno man has officially consigned a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office to the garbage bin.

Here are some questions to ponder.

What happens when Malaysians cannot trust an official statement from the country’s chief executive officer?

What does it say about the influence of the PM that even a party flunky can ignore a Cabinet directive? And what does it say when a state religious council believes it is above the law, defying an instruction from the Attorney-General?

All we know is they seem to be saying the 10 points that Putrajaya had triumphantly produced in 2011 is pointless. – June 25, 2014.