COMMENT | Close chapter on 'Allah' saga, focus on policies

COMMENT | Upko urges the federal government not to appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s groundbreaking decision on March 10 that declared the 1986 federal ban preventing non-Muslim from using the word "Allah" as unlawful and unconstitutional.

The verdict is not an encroachment on Muslims, as some Malayan political entrepreneurs are attempting to frame.

It is a restoration of the pre-1986 status quo, part of the original Malaysia promised to Sabah and Sarawak in 1963.

All parties should come together and seize the golden opportunity given by the High Court’s decision to close an ugly chapter in the playbook of identity politics in Malaysia.

For decades, this polemic has hurt so many Bornean and Orang Asli Christians, and their Muslim families and friends who share the pain...