Zaid Ibrahim: Anwar govt must be defended over ‘Allah’ issue

Zaid Ibrahim: Anwar govt must be defended over ‘Allah’ issue


Former minister Zaid Ibrahim defended the government’s policy over the issue of the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims.

According to him, the issue of the usage of the word Allah should not be played with by those who deliberately want to bring down Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government.

“Look at the issue of the word Allah. In this pluralistic society in Malaysia, of course there are majority and minority groups, Muslim and non-Muslim groups and if there is a conflict of opinions, views, wishes, demands it is the responsibility of the prime minister and the government to resolve it peacefully.

“I don’t want to antagonise the people and certain groups. It’s not difficult to antagonise them, but it’s difficult to give them assurances of security.

“The politics of the word of God, the politics of the Coldplay concert, there is no profit at all.

“But they can divide our society when they play these issues to bring down Anwar Ibrahim, that’s all," said Zaid (above) in a video on Facebook today.

His video was in response to Anwar’s statement that the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court in the use of the word Allah is specific to cases in Sarawak and is not bound by decisions in other states.

Zaid called on all parties to continue to defend the leadership of Anwar’s coalition government.

“I hope Umno people who are still in Umno will support Anwar because he is the only Malay-Muslim leader who wants to maintain democracy in Malaysia.

“Those who want to maintain the practice of a parliamentary system, want the people to choose their leaders.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim

“This system does have its weaknesses, but at least Anwar is trying to defend the system that some have been trying to change for decades, while the opposing party is using all these issues to topple the government.

“Of course, we can tell the difference,” Zaid said.

Anwar was previously reported as saying that the government will maintain the existing policy regarding the issue of the use of the term among non-Muslims.

He also said the cabinet received approval from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to present proposals to strengthen policy enforcement regarding the word Allah to the Council of Rulers.

Zaid also expressed his puzzlement over the actions of some parties who play with religion for their political interests.

“That's what I find strange, when it comes to the issue of the word Allah, we don’t get angry with other nations, other religions that use the word, but we stay silent. But internally, some of our own fellow Muslims use religion for political interests,” he added.