Chia: Why Gerakan backs Islamic country tag

Gerakan secretary-general Chia Kwang Chye has defended his party's recent concession that Malaysia is an Islamic country, pointing out that it is only by supporting this assertion that the party can help check PAS' onslaught.

Chia said Gerakan decided to throw its support behind just-retired prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's declaration on Sept 29, 2001 that Malaysia is already an Islamic country because the concept was defined as one in which the current constitution holds supreme.

"The constitution has not been amended and there is no intention by the government to amend it. If you look at the broader picture, there has been no change to our lifestyles or to any policy of the government," he explained in response to a malaysiakini reader's question.

More importantly, Chia said Gerakan felt it needed to support "moderate Muslims" against the constant pressure presented by PAS to take the country down the Islamic road.

"Sometimes, it is a matter of survival. It is only by working with them (moderates) and making them feel comfortable that we are able to check extreme policies. We don't have a choice," he said in response to a question as to why Gerakan is seen as having done little about Islamisation policies under the BN government.

Gerakan was strongly attacked by DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang following Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik's open support in a speech last month, for Mahathir's declaration.

Chia explained at length the party's reasons for adopting the stand and also hit back at DAP for apparently playing the Islamic card to frighten non-Muslim voters.

"DAP's stand has always been emotive, emotional and opportunistic. In 1986, they did well because of their anti-Islamic stand. It is only when their fortunes were changing after 1995 that they colluded with PAS. To me, this is something that cannot be forgiven," he said.

Although DAP left the Barisan Alternatif later due to differences over the issue, Chia said the move was likely to have been motivated by political expediency rather DAP's expressed commitment to secularism.

"Till today, I think DAP sees Umno as a bigger enemy than PAS. They seem to spend more time and energy attacking the more moderate stand of Umno when the people should be made more aware of the more extremist stand of PAS," he contended.

Chia was also questioned on his views about censorship of Internet content and the arts in view of his position as the parliamentary secretary of the Energy, Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

In this respect, Chia said the laws put in place are intended to prevent clashes from taking place between different groups of people in the country.

However, he said he is in favour of a less restrictive approach provided that the parties concerned understand that they are still subject to the laws.

"Everyone has a legal recourse to sue for slander or libel. The party concerned should also not go under the cover of freedom of speech but be subject to all laws of the country. If those are the rules of the game, then yes, there should be more freedom," he said.

Last month, Chia conveyed the government's warning to websites such as malaysiakini and harakahdaily that they have to be responsible for their content and not abuse the freedom to publish without censorship under the Multimedia Super Corridor Bill of Guarantee.

However, he also said that the ministry would not put the websites under scrutiny because the ministry is not empowered to do so under the law.

His remark was in response to questions raised by opposition parliamentarians over the progress in police investigations against malaysiakini over a letter published in January which was alleged to be seditious.