Muhyddin was in Dr Mahathir Cabinet that agreed to settle ‘Allah’ case, Loke says
KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who claimed an unnamed DAP minister sought to settle the case on the use of “Allah” in Christian publications, was part of the second Mahathir administration that chose to do so, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke said.
Loke said it was disingenuous of Muhyiddin to blame DAP for the matter when the latter had been in the Pakatan Harapan government from 2018 until 2020, before the Sheraton Move allowed him to become the prime minister.
"Who is he referring to? At that time, I was in Cabinet and I never raised the issue.
"In fact, the decision to try and settle the (case) outside of court was actually the Cabinet’s and maybe he (Muhyiddin) was not around for the Cabinet meeting when the decision was made,” Loke was quoted as saying by Sinar Harian.
Muhyiddin yesterday claimed a DAP minister approached him to settle the case out of court when he was the home minister of the PH administration, but he disagreed as the Home Ministry had wanted to proceed.
Loke said since it was a collective Cabinet decision, Muhyiddin should not be blaming DAP and that attempts to do so were politically motivated.
He also said the Cabinet now was committed to upholding Islam as the religion of the federation, in line with the Federal Constitution.
Loke then said the matter must be managed in harmoniously, in view of Malaysia’s plural society.
On Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s government confirmed withdrawing its appeal against the 2021 High Court ruling in favour of the Sarawakian Christian from the native Melanau tribe, Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill.
The move put an end to the 15-year-long legal saga that began when the government seized the Sarawak Bumiputera’s eight educational CDs containing the word “Allah”, the Arabic word for God, which were for her own use.
The appeal had initially been scheduled for case management on May 19 but will no longer be brought up in court as the government has dropped the entire appeal, with a notice of discontinuance filed on April 18.
On March 10, 2021, the High Court ruled in favour Jill Ireland, by granting three of the court orders she had sought; the government appealed two days later.
These included the High Court’s declaration that a government directive issued by the Home Ministry’s publication control’s division via a circular dated December 5, 1986 is “unlawful and unconstitutional”.
The 1986 directive by the Home Ministry said the word “Allah” cannot be used in all Christian publications in Malaysia, and this was the government ban which the High Court had found to be illegal.
