NAJIB ACCUSED OF INSINCERITY ON 'ALLAH'

Dear Editor,

TODAY, millions of Malaysians are both astonished and relieved to learn that the ruling Barisan Nasional party had actually not been any more sincere on the issue of use of the word "Allah" within Malaysian shore.

PM Najib Razak in his speech in Kelantan yesterday revealed that BN itself apparently opposed and wanted to deny non-muslims especially Christians the right to use the word in their worship.

God is great because He knows when to open one's mouth to reveal one's true character. We Sabahans had all this while were hoodwinked by UMNO, PBS, UPKO and PBRS into believing that BN allowed Christians to use the word "Allah", as had been the case for ages.

But now Najib, UMNO president and BN chairman, while in Tanah Merah, Kelantan, himself indicated BN's own stand on the issue by accusing opposition PR to have had committed seven major sins, one of them is that PR allowed the word "Allah" to be used by non-muslims !

What does this mean? It means UMNO and BN and Najib especially were behind a concerted efforts to deny Christians the use of the universal word to, contrary to what BN had indicated before that it should be allowed for at least Christians in East Malaysian's states of Sabah and Sarawak who had been using it since time immemorial.

And that explained why UMNO-controlled authorities like the Home Ministry had barred and seized Christianity publications including our Indonesian Bible called "Alkitab" which used the word "Allah" extensively to describe the Almighty.

No matter how UMNO and BN twist their so-called "stand" on this issue, in the end UMNO and BN true characters are self-revealing.

We also would like PBS leaders to explain on a certain Enakmen Pentadbiran Undang-Undang Islam, Sabah, 1992 which among other things stipulated that non-muslims are barred from using not only the word "Allah" but many other universal words like "iman", "nabi", "kiblat", "baitullah" and "solat".  The law apparently was passed during PBS government.

We call on the remnant supporters of UMNO allies PBS, UPKO, PBRS and others in Sabah to really ponder on which party they should vote at the coming general election.

Senior leaders of these Sabah parties would not dare open their mouth against Najib's speech as they are beholden to their master and boss.

Best Regards,

DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN