This Parliamentary Roundtable on the occasion of the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary is to reaffirm the Merdeka social contract and Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as official religion and not Islamic state.

One of the causes of gloom for many Malaysians on the occasion of the 50th Merdeka anniversary comes from the question whether Malaysia has lost one of its fundamental nation-building underpinnings agreed by the forefathers of the major communities in the Merdeka social contract and Malaysia Agreement half-a-century ago that ours is a secular state with Islam as the official religion and not an Islamic state?

I have no doubt that the first three Prime Ministers, Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein would have had no hesitation in any period of their lives to reaffirm that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the official religion and not an Islamic state.

It is a sad reflection of 50 years of Malaysian nation-building that this cannot be said for the present generation of government leaders.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said last Saturday that Malaysia was not a secular or theocratic state but one which was based on parliamentary democracy.

What Abdullah did not say is as important as what he said. Although he deliberately omitted reference to the Islamic state, the “929 Declaration” of the then Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on Sept. 29, 2001 that Malaysia was an Islamic state and the “717 Declaration” of Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on July 17, 2007 that Malaysia was an Islamic state was not and had never been a secular state remain unchallenged.

Tun Dr. Mahathir said in Langkawi on Tuesday that Malaysia is an Islamic state even though it is not officially called that.

He said: “Officially we are not an Islamic state, neither are we a secular state. But by definition, as recognized by most international societies, Malaysia is an Islamic state.”

For 44 years until the Mahathir’s “929 declaration” in 2001, the position of the UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders were clear and unequivocal – that Malaysia was conceived as a secular state with Islam as the official religion and that It was not an Islamic state — backed up by constitutional documents and history as well as the highest judicial pronouncements of the land.

On the 50th Merdeka anniversary, the position has varied to: Malaysia is not a secular state. It is an Islamic state. It is not a theocratic state.

The abandonment of the “Malaysia is a secular state and not an Islamic state” stand and its replacement by the “Malaysia was an Islamic state and was not and had never been a secular state” position involved a quantum jump and tectonic shift, going against the very grain of the Merdeka social contract and Malaysia Agreement which had been openly defended by the nation’s forefathers including the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein.

Once it is accepted that Malaysia is an Islamic state, then the call to transform Malaysia into a theocratic state would involve smaller and much easier jump as compared to the quantum leap from Malaysia as a secular to an Islamic state.

If Malaysia as a secular state with Islam as the official religion which was totally unchallenged and undisputed for the first 44 years of Malaysian nationhood could be so summarily, undemocratically and unconstitutionally jettisoned, what is there to stop a series of small leaps for those who want to see Malaysia’s “Islamic state” increasingly assume the full Islamist characteristics on the road towards a theocratic state?

It will not require another 50 years for such a series of smaller and easier jumps to take Malaysia down the road towards a theocratic state unless the present generation of moderate Malaysians, both Muslims and non-Muslims, are prepared to heed the recent advice of the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr. Nazrain Shah in quoting a leading jurist: “We have to stand up and be counted. We have to protect the things that make our nations great…”

The ban on media reporting of public debate to reaffirm the secular basis of Malaysian nation-building and to debunk the arbitrary and unconstitutional attempt to rewrite the Merdeka social contract and Malaysia Agreement on the secular basis of Malaysian nation-building must be viewed with alarm.

The time has come for a nation-wide campaign to reaffirm Merdeka social contract and Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as official religion and not Islamic state before this fundamental principle of nation-building is branded “sensitive” and driven underground unfit for public discussion.

(Speech at the Parliamentary Roundtable on 50th Merdeka anniversary to reaffirm Merdeka social contract and Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as religion of Federation and not an Islamic state held in Parliament on Friday, 10th August 2007 at 10 am)