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KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S Deputy Premier declared yesterday that the country is an 'Islamic state' and had never been secular, stoking fresh concerns over non-Muslims' rights.
'Islam is the official religion and we are an Islamic state,' Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told reporters after attending an Islamic conference.
'We have never been secular because being secular by Western definition means separation of the Islamic principles in the way we govern a country. We have never been affiliated to that position,' he said.
'We have always been driven by our adherence to the fundamentals of Islam.'
He was responding to a question on whether Malaysia was moving away from secularism towards greater Islamisation, following a string of recent court decisions which critics say have been biased towards Muslims, who make up nearly 60 per cent of the population.
Datuk Seri Najib also attempted to reassure minority groups by saying that freedom of religion and other rights are constitutionally guaranteed to ethnic Chinese and Indian Malaysians, and that 'we protect the rights of non-Muslims'.
His declaration of the country's Islamic nature was the strongest official statement since former premier Mahathir Mohamad said the same thing in 2001, and drew a sharp response almost immediately.
Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang slammed Datuk Seri Najib for repudiating the social contract under which Malaysia was set up as a secular state half a century ago.
'This is not only a denial of the fundamental citizenship rights of non-Muslim Malaysians, but also of Muslim Malaysians, the majority of whom would want Malaysia to steer away from extremist Islamist policies,' said Mr Lim, the ethnic-Chinese head of the Democratic Action Party.
Datuk A. Vaithilingam, president of the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism also criticised the statement, saying: 'We do not accept Malaysia as an Islamic state. That would mean that everybody is governed by Islamic laws.'
Reverend Hermen Shastri, Malaysian Council of Churches general secretary, added to the chorus of disapproval, saying the remarks 'send a negative signal to non-Muslim groups'.
Many people fear that official backing of the Islamic state concept will embolden the Malay-dominated civil service in expanding Islamic programmes that could erode the rights of minorities.
Activists also point to recent raids on pubs, the Islamic zeal of national schools and the snooping on lovers in parks.
And in a high-profile case this year, Ms Lina Joy, who was born a Muslim, failed to get the country's highest civil court to recognise her conversion to Christianity.
In another case, Ms Revathi Masoosai, who was also born a Muslim but had married a Hindu man, was forced to spend six months in an Islamic rehabilitation centre.
Datuk Seri Najib's remarks also come at a sensitive time as a general election could be held in the next six months.
But prominent Umno MP Shahrir Samad urged people not to read too much into the remarks, saying: 'Maybe he wanted to appease some Muslim groups.
'The reality is that Malaysia is neither an entirely secular state nor is it an entirely theological state.
'Why do we have to fit either brand? We have our own identity and political structure.'
hazlinh@sph.com.sg
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