Allah affair and the attack on the religious freedom do not bring votes to Malaysian government
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The dispute between the Malaysian government and the Herald, a Malaysian Catholic weekly, over the use of Allah's name by non-Muslims, will not result in an increase in votes for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, this according to a survey carried out by the Universiti Malaya Centre for Elections and Democracy (UMCEDEL).
The findings are based on representative sample of voters in Kajang, a constituency in the State of Selangor, not far from the capital Kuala Lumpur, which next month is called to the polls in a by-election.
Well over half of the respondents (around 55 per cent) are convinced that the issue will not bring more support to Prime Minister Najib Razak and his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party.
The figure rises to 60 per cent among ethnic Malay Muslims.
About 85 per cent of respondents living in the villages scattered around the urban constituency felt that the Allah affair was not a vote getter.
The survey's results, admittedly limited to one constituency but still representative, are a real slap in the government's face, as well as that of the UMNO party, both nationally and in Selangor, who have used the 'Allah story' to win votes among Islamists.
The ruling party targeted Christians in the eastern part of the country who have used Allah's name in the local version of the Bible for centuries, as well as Fr Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Catholic weekly, who has been fighting a long court battle to defend the rights of the Catholic minority.
Almost 600 people, who represent more than 10 per cent of the Kajang constituency's electorate, took part in the survey.
The survey found that the issues of greatest interest to the local population are the high crime rate, the rising cost of living and housing prices, which have reached unsustainable levels.
Respondents believe that government action and election campaigns should focus on these issues rather than on spurious questions devoid of practical implications.
At the same time, about 69 per cent of respondents said that the rising cost of living and the ineffectiveness of government action would help Anwar Ibrahim's opposition Pakatan Rakyat party.
Ibrahim himself came under fire from a senior official with the UMNO ruling party for speaking out in defence of Christians and religious freedom at a church in Kajang.
For Reezal Merican Naina Merican, the opposition leader's move is a "desperate attempt" to regain ground and win a by-election in the riding on 23 March.
Instead, he urged his political opponent to turn to Islamic legal scholars, who "alone" can really understand the Allah affair.
The statement by the ruling party official refers to a speech Anwar Ibrahim gave last Monday at the Church of the Holy Family in Kajang, at the end of Sunday celebrations.
Speaking to a crowd of more than a thousand people, Ibrahim stressed that "If Allah is Lord for the entire universe, how can there be limitations" on the use of his name.
The dispute over the use of Allah's name by non-Muslims broke out in 2008 when the government threatened to revoke the licence of the Herald, Malaysia's main Catholic weekly.
Church leaders responded by taking the government to court for violating constitutional rights.
In 2009, the High Court ruled in favour of the Catholics, causing anger among Muslims who consider Allah's name as exclusive to Islam.
Acts of violence against churches and other Christian places of worship followed. The government decided to stem the extremist wave by appealing the case.
In Malaysia, a nation of more than 28 million people, mostly Muslims (60 per cent), Christians are the third largest religious group (after Buddhists) with more than 2.6 million members.
A Latin-Malay dictionary published 400 years ago shows that the word Allah was already in use to describe the Biblical God in the local language.
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