Allah issue: Why silence the ministers?

KOTA KINABALU: Bingkor assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan has questioned the imposition of a gag order on the Cabinet Ministers restricting them from speaking and commenting on the “Allah” issue.

He said such a move showed that the present Federal government under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is floundering and incapable of governing.

“The gag order means that the PM and his Cabinet is weak and unable to stand up for all Malaysians who are non-Muslims.

“This is probably the reason why the PM is unable to state his stand on the issue. He is not the PM for all Malaysians,” said Kitingan who is also Sabah STAR chairman.

He was responding to news report that the Cabinet had unanimously decided that only Najib can issue statments and announcements on the issue.

The Oriental Daily had on Jan 9 quoted Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam as saying that “since we have decided that only Najib can speak on the Allah issue, we will leave it to him to make any statements.”

Tourism Minister Nazri Aziz who was also quoted by the daily confirmed the gag order adding: “You should go ask the Prime Minister … I cannot say anything. We ministers must obey the official secrecy order. I am not allowed to leak any information from the (Cabinet) meeting.”

Responding to the status, Kitingan took to task non-Umno Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers and leaders of the BN component parties for not daring to speak out against the gag order, describing them as “spineless” and mere followers.

“They are not fit to be in the Cabinet and together with their Umno counterparts, they have no business governing all Malaysians,” he said.

Kitingan also demanded the rationale for the gag order.

“What does the gag order mean? he asked.

Cabinet no longer respects 10 points?

He reminded that in April 2011, the prime minister himself had signed the 10-Point solution in which bibles in all languages including Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia were freely allowed.

He said this means that the use of the word “Allah” was not an issue and more specifically bibles in Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia were at liberty to be used.

“The 10-Point was a decision of the Cabinet, the highest authority of government in the land.

“Is it not a Cabinet decision that was meant to be implemented and enforced and followed by the government and its agencies. Why then the raid on the Bahasa Malaysia bibles?

“Why are the bibles still retained and not returned to the Bible Society and why the gag order?

“Does it mean that the Cabinet no longer respects and will no longer honour the 10-Point?” he asked.

Kitingan said the gag order now seems to mean that the 10-Point decision is no longer valid and was a mere political gimmick in the run-up to GE-13 to hoodwink and mislead the Christian voters in Sabah and Sarawak in the election. -FMT