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‘Panel to have final say’
KUALA LUMPUR: The special commission for religious-sensitive matters will have the final say, if the Cabinet approves its establishment.
Minister in the Prime MinisterÂ’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said the proposed commission would focus more on moral obligations in discussing these matters.
“Such issues should be handled in an extra-legal manner as they are very personal and close to the heart for those involved,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.
He added that the Government would like to see leaders of the different religions in the commission to ensure deliberations were conducted in a fair manner.
Nazri said the Attorney GeneralÂ’s Chambers was fine-tuning the details on the setting up of the commission, after which the proposal would be submitted to Cabinet for consideration.
On Wednesday, The Star front-paged a report that the A-GÂ’s Chambers was mulling over the setting up of a special commission to study religious-sensitive cases.
The latest controversy involves 28-year-old R. Subashini, a Hindu, who is in a legal tussle with her husband who converted to Islam.
However, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) said an interfaith commission should not usurp the role of the civil courts.
“Civil courts established under the Federal Constitution must have the last word on religious-sensitive cases,” said president Datuk Chee Peck Kiat.
At a conference in 2005, he said civil society had proposed the setting up of a Interfaith Commission by statute that was envisaged to be a non-binding, consensus creating body intended to act only through “conciliation, mediation and negotiation” to help parties in dispute to resolve their differences amicably.
