Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that he was not a dictator in his 22 years as Prime Minister but the incontrovertible fact is that after he arbitrarily and unconstitutionally declared Malaysia as an Islamic State at the Gerakan National Delegates Conference on Sept. 29, 2001, not a single SUPP leader in the past 10 years dare to say in Parliament and Cabinet that Malaysia is a secular state as provided by the Merdeka Constitution 1957 and Malaysia Agreement 1963.

It is also incontrovertible history that although Mahathir unilaterally, arbitrarily and unconstitutionally declared Malaysia is an Islamic State in what DAP had described as the “929 Declaration” without first consulting and getting the agreement of the other Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties, the BN Supreme Council was convened within a week where all BN component parties including SUPP fully endorsed Mahathir’s unconstitutional “929” Declaration.

Only DAP stood up firm and fast in declaring that Mahathir’s “929” was unlawful and unconstitutional, in violation of the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement – pointing out that in the Cobbold Commission Report, the Malaysian Government made categorical assurance that Malaysia was and would remain “secular” when referring to reservations and fears expressed by Sarawakians and Sabahans about “freedom of religion”.

Now, SUPP leaders have betrayed the first generation of SUPP leadership in surrendering the fundamental constitutional feature of Malaysia as a secular nation with Islam as the official religion but an Islamic state.
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