After ‘Regrettable’ Jais Raid, NUCC Tells Putrajaya To Uphold 10-Point Deal
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- Published on Monday, 06 January 2014 16:24
Pic : The Malay Mail
Tan Sri Samsudin Osman, the NUCC chairman, said the council views the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) raid last Thursday as a “blatant disregard” of the Cabinet’s 10-point solution in April 2011.
“NUCC calls on the government to ensure compliance of the 10-point solution and to respond to challenges to national unity with a greater sense of urgency,” Samsudin said when reading out the NUCC’s 10 conclusions on the raid.
The NUCC will also host closed-door discussions through two of its working committees with “religious authorities, religious and community leaders to find a peaceful settlement,” Samsudin said.
He confirmed that Jais would be involved in the planned closed-door talks organised by the NUCC’s working committees on Law, Policies and Multiculturalism.
“The working committees will have to engage them. They will have to be engaged to have a meaningful solution to this,” the former chief secretary to the government said.
But he stressed that the NUCC was not seeking a solution to the controversy over non-Muslims’ use of the word “Allah” itself, saying that it was focused on preventing a repeat of the Jais raid that he described as “regrettable”.
When asked whether the council felt that Jais had acted wrongly, he said: “We have chosen these words with much deliberation. You must understand that the NUCC cannot take a partisan stand.”
“We just say, ‘Look, this is something regrettable, it should not happen again,’” he added.
In response to a question on whether the NUCC would ask for the seized bibles to be returned to the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM), Samsudin said the council’s discussion did not touch on that point.
In its 10 conclusions, the NUCC also asked all to remain calm and respect the right to religious freedom that was provided in the Federal Constitution.
Samsudin was speaking to the media after the NUCC’s first full meeting to discuss plans to draw up a National Unity Blueprint.
The 30-member NUCC, which was formed last November, will be carrying out a series of dialogues with the grassroots in 17 towns in Malaysia, Samsudin said.
The council also decided today to set up five working committees including Inclusive Development, Youth and National Unity, as well as National Integration, he said, with members to sign up for involvement in a maximum of three committees.
Its meeting today comes as temperatures rose recently over the so-called “Allah” row that remains unresolved four years after it shocked the nation and led to the worst religious strife in the country’s history.
The ongoing legal dispute between the government and the Catholic Church over its right to print the word “Allah” in the Herald’s Bahasa Malaysia section is still pending before the Federal Court, which is set to hear arguments from both sides on February 24 before deciding on whether it will hear an appeal by the Catholic Church.
