It is not that the UMNO government cannot solve the Allah issue, it chooses not to. Read the following article appearing in the New York Time.

Quote
>>>In
>>>reality, a government dominated by the United Malays National
>>>Organization (UMNO) is using spurious religious/linguistic arguments to
>>>shore up its support among a majority Malay electorate, which has been
>>>fed for years with preferences and privileges. Meanwhile, non-Malay
>>>money and talent exits the country.
>>>By PHILIP BOWRING, The New York Times
>>>One ought to be able to laugh at the absurdity of it. But the
>>>message is one of ignorance, religious and racial prejudice and
>>>political opportunism.
>>>
>>>Last week, the Malaysian government
>>>declared that Christians in one part of the country could use “Allah”
>>>as the word for God when speaking Malay, but that those in most of the
>>>country could not. This is the same government that is currently
>>>running a public relations campaign called One Malaysia emphasizing the
>>>common identity of the nation’s racial and religious
>>> mix.
>>>
>>>In
>>>reality, a government dominated by the United Malays National
>>>Organization (UMNO) is using spurious religious/linguistic arguments to
>>>shore up its support among a majority Malay electorate, which has been
>>>fed for years with preferences and privileges. Meanwhile, non-Malay
>>>money and talent exits the country.
>>>
>>>The government had earlier
>>>tried to stop the use of the word Allah by all Christians. This was
>>>successfully challenged in the High Court. But instead of letting the
>>>matter rest, the government declined to back down, setting the scene
>>>for the fire bombing of churches. While these could not be laid
>>>directly at the door of UMNO, hotheads in the party may well have taken
>>>their cue from what non-Muslims see as a deliberate attempt to stir up
>>>ethnic/religious issues for political gain. Last year it was Hindus who
>>>were the target of Malay provocation.
>>>
>>>UMNO political calculation
>>>demands
>>> that the organization sticks to its demands about the use of
>>>the word Allah in peninsular Malaysia, where all Malays are deemed
>>>Muslims and where Christians are ethnic Chinese or Indian, but not in
>>>the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak where there are large
>>>communities of Malay-speaking Christians. The UMNO-led coalition needs
>>>the support of the multi-ethnic parties in those states.
>>>
>>>The
>>>word Allah has always been used without Muslim objection by Christians
>>>in the Arab world, as well as those in Malay-speaking Indonesia, where
>>>there are 10 times as many Muslims as in Malaysia. The word is itself
>>>derived from pre-Islamic Semitic language roots. Even Malaysia’s
>>>strictly Islamist opposition party, Parti Islam (PAS), agrees that all
>>>Abrahamic faiths are entitled to use the word Allah.
>>>
>>>But such
>>>facts are of little relevance to UMNO politicians determined to drum up
>>>any issue that can be used to show
>>> their commitment to defending Malay
>>>and Muslim privileges and thus retain the support of a Malay majority
>>>against the appeal both of PAS and the multi-ethnic Keadilan party of
>>>the former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
>>>
>>>UMNO cannot
>>>claim to be a party of the pious. Half a century in power has turned it
>>>into a vast patronage machine that enriches the Malay elite, providing
>>>support for luxurious lifestyles. Its insistence that all Malays are
>>>Muslims (and cannot convert) is an attempt to give religious backing to
>>>the message of Malay racial preference. That is barely in accord with
>>>the universalist notions of global Islam but keeps the loyalty of many
>>>Malays otherwise resentful of growing income gaps.
>>>
>>>However, the
>>>racial and religious divides among the opposition still make an
>>>UMNO-led government seem a better choice than the alternatives — most
>>>likely ones in which the fundamentalism of PAS would
>>> replace the
>>>opportunism of UMNO. So despite the deterioration of communal relations
>>>in peninsular Malaysia, no major changes are in sight.
>>>
>>>This
>>>carries two main dangers. The first is the continuing large scale
>>>exodus of capital and of talented non-Malays. Five years of generally
>>>good prices for its main commodity exports, oil, gas and palm oil, have
>>>delivered huge trade surpluses and a current account surplus of more
>>>than 10 percent of gross domestic product. But economic growth has been
>>>slow due to very weak private investment, only partly offset by large
>>>government deficit spending. Once a major recipient of foreign capital,
>>>Malaysia is now a source of flight capital. This is only sustainable
>>>while commodity prices remain at double levels of five years ago and
>>>three times those in 2002.
>>>
>>>A longer term danger, at least as
>>>perceived by some leading Malays, such as the former Finance Minister
>>>Tunku
>>> Razaleigh, is that a combination of religious intolerance and
>>>resentment of federal exploitation of their natural resources will
>>>generate secessionism in the Borneo states. They joined Malaysia in
>>>1963 without much enthusiasm but as the best option open to them as the
>>>British withdrew from empire. They do not want their traditions of
>>>racial and religious diversity to be poisoned by peninsular prejudices.
>>>Their separate treatment on the Allah issue will have some immediate
>>>benefits for Kuala Lumpur, but can only underscore just how different
>>>they are.
>>>
>>>In short, the episode is sad commentary on a nation
>>>whose mix of races, its fine infrastructure and wealth of resources has
>>>held such promise. If only there really were One Malaysia.
>>>
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