By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — The High Court here will hear on Oct 14 the Catholic Church’s bid to prevent several Islamic bodies from interfering in its ongoing suit against the home minister’s ban on the use of the word “Allah” in its newspaper.
Judge Lau Bee Lan made the decision in chambers today.
Lawyer for the church, Porres Royan, told reporters that the church had filed an application at the High Court here to recall and set aside its earlier decision allowing some 10 state Islamic Councils as well as the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (Macma) to intervene in the case.
Judge Lau had on August 3 ruled that the state Islamic councils could intervene in the church’s suit against the home minister on the basis that their legal rights as advisers to the rulers, who sit as heads of Islam in their respective states, would be gravely affected by any decision taken by the court.
But Royan said the Federal Court, headed by Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi, had on Sept 3 ruled to bar the Selangor Islamic Council (Mais) from entering as an interested party in a dispute between the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) and Bong Boon Chuen, together with 150 landowners, over Islamic burial land in neighbouring Selangor.
The top court’s most recent decision in Bong’s case sets an example for the High Court here to keep interveners out.
Lawyer for Mais, Abdul Rahim Sinwan, said the state Islamic councils would challenge the church’s second bid to remove them from intervening in the “Allah” case.
He pointed out that the Federal Court had made two conflicting rulings on whether or not interveners could be allowed in.
Abdul Rahim noted that the Federal Court had ruled to allow bodies to intervene in an earlier case.
He referred to a 2007 ruling in Staghorn vs Hong Leong Bank, which he claimed was similar to the Bong case, on a land issue and set the precedent for all courts to follow.
The bespectacled lawyer said the Islamic councils only had to show that they had a “direct legal interest” in the “Allah” case.
He said they had already satisfied that criterion, notably through the enactment of the “anti-propagation laws”.
The Catholic Church filed for a judicial review in mid-February against the home minister’s ban on it using the word “Allah” outside the context of Islam in its multi-lingual newspaper.
The home minister had threatened to shut down “The Herald” by taking back their annual publishing licence if the weekly insisted on using the word “Allah” to refer to the Christian God.
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2. The word has been in use by "The Herald" for its Bahasa Malaysia articles and letters from readers since the publication started more than 15 years ago. It is catering to the East Malaysian Catholic congregation in the Catholic Church.
3. There are more East Malaysian Catholics than there are West Malaysian Catholics.
4. The East Malaysians celebrate mass in Bahasa Malaysia, because there are many indigenous groups, and Bahasa Malaysia is the agreed common denominator among them. Yes, there is English as well, but over the past 20 years, thanks to the education policies of this country, they have suffered just as badly as West Malaysians. So Bahasa Malaysia is the most unifying language for the many peoples there.
5. With the migration of many East Malaysians to West Malaysia for studies and work, this large Catholic congregation who now worship in the churches in West Malaysia, especially in the Klang Valley and Penang, has to be catered for.
6. It is thereby illegal for the Home Ministry or any other party to deprive East Malaysian Catholics of reading, writing and practising their faith in the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, which they have been using all their lives.