Jala denies ‘envoy’ role over church matter

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/1/nation/7135593&sec=nation

Friday October 1, 2010

Jala denies ‘envoy’ role over church matter

By JOSHUA FOONG
joshuafoong@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Cabinet minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala has refuted claims that he is heading a government effort to convince Christians to use the Hebrew word Yahweh instead of the Quranic Allah in their Malay text.

“A friend asked me a personal question and, while in my heart I have my opinions, I believe that church matters should be left in the church,” he told reporters at the National SME Economic Transformation Conference 2010 at at the Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday.

He was commenting on an online report that Putrajaya had dispatched special envoys – including Jala – to parley with his community and seek a peaceful end to the Allah court dispute amid Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s overtures to world leaders urging pragmatism in dealing with extremists.

While Jala is said to be heading the effort, the portal also reported that he was facing stiff resistance from within his own Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church.

The portal added that the move at home may have caused a rift within the Christian community, with the English-speaking, urban and middle-class members on one side and poorer, rural churchgoers, who mainly use the Malay language in their worship, on the other.

The Catholic church won its bid in December last year for the right to use the word Allah to refer to God in Christian worship.

Two other suits filed separately by SIB Sabah and an SIB Sarawak member are still pending.

Jala, a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, grew up in the Bario Highlands of Sarawak’s interior, home of the staunchly Christian Kelabit people.

On another matter raised by the portal, Jala said he was taken out of context regarding his alleged dismissal of the need for proficiency in English for Malaysia to achieve its 2020 vision of becoming a high-income nation.

“I did not write off the importance of mastering the English language but only said that Malaysia can be a high-income economy with the national language,” he said.

“South Korea and Japan became high-income nations without using English. If they can do it, we can do it, too,” he added.

“In this manner, it does not mean the English language is not important. It is also crucial,” said Jala, adding that the bigger picture was to ensure that the quality of education was raised to groom a generation of calibre and competent citizens.