Karpal urges Pas to openly disavow Islamic state mission - NST

By : Lee Keng Fatt

GEORGE TOWN, Mon:

Pas should give up its avowed aim to turn the country to an Islamic state if it comes to power, DAP chairman Karpal Singh said.

Urging Pas to be realistic, he said the Federal Constitution clearly reflected that Malaysia is a secular and not an Islamic state.

"This was also the thinking of the late Tunku Abdul Rahman who are on public record stating that Malaysia was not an Islamic state, but a secular state,” he said in a statement today. "In fact in 1988, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held that Malaysia was not an Islamic state, but a secular state,"

Karpal, who welcomed the clarification by Pas vice-president Husam Musa that his party would not set up an Islamic government at the federal level, said Pas should not ignore the authoritative decision of the Supreme Court and neither should it contradict assertions made publicly by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Tun Hussein Onn on the status of Malaysia as a secular state.

"I call upon Pas to publicly state that Malaysia is a secular state,” said Karpal, who is also MP for Bukit Gelugor. "The authoritative ruling the Supreme Court binds Pas and all other parties."

If the controversial issue in relation to Islamic state could be resolved, the path would be clear for DAP, PKR and Pas to take on the federal government in the next elections and win, he said.

[More at http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/NewsBreak/20080317183405/Article/index_html]