PUTRAJAYA, July 23 — Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon confirmed today that the inter-faith panel initiated by the Najib administration had been asked to come up with a new name.
However, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of national unity told reporters that no timeframe has been set for the panel to come up with another name.
“We do not want to make a timeframe because we feel that [for] such an important matter, they must have patience... both sides must have patience,” he said.
“We will let you know when they’re ready to make any announcements,” Koh said dismissively.
The Malaysian Insider had reported last week that the Cabinet’s Special Committee to Promote Inter-Religious Harmony and Understanding (SCPIRHU) slammed into a brick wall soon after its inaugural meet, after several Muslim groups and muftis baulked at the inclusion of the term “inter-religious”.
Koh and the Cabinet committee’s appointed co-ordinator, Datuk Ilani Isahak, have been working behind the scenes quietly persuading religious leaders to head back to the table.
The council of muftis had unanimously voted for a name change to the panel at a meeting on April 3, claiming the present name would cause confusion among Malaysian Muslims.
They proposed that the panel should be renamed the “Special Committee to Promote Inter-Racial Harmony and Understanding”.
They also wanted the panel — currently under the care of Koh’s department — to be supervised by Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the minister in charge of Islamic religious affairs.
The panel’s first official meeting was held on April 6. A subsequent meeting was scheduled but was called off following remarks by two Barisan National (BN) MPs at the Dewan Rakyat on April 13.
They had called for a review of the formation of the Inter-faith Relations Working Committee and for it to be replaced it with a racial relations committee.
Koh said the committee is currently having discussions regarding this matter among themselves.
“Let them have a chance to have a discussion among themselves rather than to bring up in the open again,” he said.
The talks began after a spate of attacks on various houses of worships following the New Year’s Eve High Court ruling that Catholic weekly The Herald had the constitutional right to use the word “Allah” to describe the Christian God.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers have applied for a stay of execution pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal. No date has been set for the appeal process yet.
