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KUALA LUMPUR - JUST weeks before Malaysia marks 50 years of independence, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has come out to assure its minority communities that his government will take steps to address their concerns over race relations.
These concerns have been sparked by several controversial cases recently, prompting the Prime Minister to declare that he would be fair to all races.
'I am your prime minister, representing all races. I have to be fair to all,' he said when opening the party conference of a Barisan Nasional member, the United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Organisation (Upko), in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
He urged religious minorities to be patient and trust the government to resolve the disputes. He said he had never evaded difficult issues, but needed time to resolve them.
He promised that laws might be amended, if necessary, to tackle disputes.
Datuk Seri Abdullah was responding to concerns raised by Upko president Bernard Dompok, who is also a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department. Tan Sri Dompok is one of the more vocal government leaders on these issues.
Over the past few years, a series of legal disputes over religion has taken its toll on race relations. A recent poll showed that only 54 per cent of the Chinese in Malaysia supported the administration.
The government has promised to resolve the problems, but progress has been slow. Much of the problem arises from the fact that Malaysia has a parallel justice system - the Syariah Court for Muslim law, and the civil courts for everything else.
However, there are an increasing number of disputes straddling both jurisdictions, and no satisfactory solution has been found.
These include Muslims attempting to leave Islam and marital disputes when one spouse converts to Islam.
Recent controversial cases included that of Ms Lina Joy, a Malay-Muslim woman who tried unsuccessfully to have Islam deleted from her identity card as she wanted to be a Christian, and of a Hindu mother fighting for custody of her children, whom her estranged husband had converted to Islam.
Federal Court Justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad, in a recent landmark ruling, said that Parliament must resolve the jurisdiction issue.
Datuk Seri Abdullah, who described Justice Abdul Hamid as a respected authority of law, said on Saturday that if the law needed to be amended, it would be done by Parliament.
Given the controversy, Umno vice-president Muhyiddin Yassin has declared it is time for Malaysia to forge a 'new national consensus' on issues that had been agreed on by the country's founding fathers but which had become contentious.
'We should re-look the basis for the understanding reached upon by our forefathers and also look at the important components in the Federal Constitution,' he said yesterday, noting that many questions had been raised, including whether Malaysia was an Islamic or secular state.
carolynh@sph.com.sg
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