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Gerakan: Set up Constitutional Court for religious issues
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/4/2/nation/17322497&sec=nation
KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan has called for the setting up of a special Constitutional Court to deal with “various grey issues.”
It said this was in view of the increasing number of cases affecting the religious, family and basic human rights of non-Muslims.
This was one the resolutions passed by the Federal Territory Gerakan convention yesterday.
FT Gerakan chairman Datuk Dr Tan Kee Kwong, who also heads the party’s religious bureau at the national level, said many non-Muslims now felt that their rights were gradually being eroded, “so something must be done to correct this.”
“The problem exists. Everybody knows that,” he said.
Dr Tan, who is the Segambut MP, said non-Muslims should never be subjected to the Syariah Court, adding that this was never the original intention of the Islamic court.
He said the special Constitutional Court could be a way to finding a permanent solution to inter-religious problems which were bound to crop up from time to time.
“The Government must be brave enough to tackle this problem now before things get worse,” he said.
There was also a resolution calling for the removal of Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria as the Perak Mufti over the spreading a baseless SMS (alleging that Datuk Azhar Mansor had converted out of Islam) some months ago.
Gerakan secretary-general Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye, who was also at the press conference, said that there should be understanding by all parties when dealing with religious issues.
He noted that while the country was not on the brink of a crisis on inter-religious issues, “we should resolve them before they do.”
The proposed special Constitutional Court, he said, could be an institutional solution in dealing with such problems.
In any case, such a court would take a year or two to set up, he said, adding that it was good for any Government with forward planning to consider any suggestion.
