publication’.
71
The case is still pending in the Court of Appeal after the church won
the right in the High Court on 31 December 2009.
vii. conclusion
The first decade of the twenty-first century was a tumultuous and highly significant
period in Malaysian history, with developments on both the political and the
constitutional fronts which carry optimistic overtones and simultaneously ominous
portents for the future of the Malaysian polity.
The most significant development during the period under review is the trans-
formation in the political dynamics of Malaysia. There is a broad feeling that the
aura of electoral invincibility of BN, which had dominated the governance of
the country, has lost its gloss. The outcome of the general election in 2008 was a
landmark development. It excited the general public that they were witnessing for
the first time the possibility of a strong opposition capable of taking the reins of
national government. The strong and spectacular showing of the PR in the elec-
tions meant that the government had to take issues of accountability seriously. No
longer can issues of corruption, maladministration and improper behaviour of
public officials be swept under the carpet. This development is definitely for the
good of the country and its people. The outcome of the general election on 5 May
2013 will be of fundamental importance to the growth of democracy in Malaysia
(see Postscript to this chapter).
The second development, that of establishing or reconstituting Malaysia as an
‘Islamic state’, has had ‘serious implications for multiculturalism, religious plural-
ism and democracy in Malaysia’.^72 The decade under review has witnessed a
marked increase in ‘tension and polarisation within Malaysian society’, and this
can be attributed to ‘UMNO and PAS’s competitive but erratically inconsistent
repudiation or denigration of secularism and the secular in favour of its putative
opposite – a Muslim society governed by Islamic law’.^73 Professor Faruqi of the
MARA University of Technology proffered this thoughtful reflection:
Given the multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious composition
of Malaysian society, the imperatives of coalition politics, the demands
of a federal polity, the power of the non-Malay electorate, the 54 -year-
old political tradition of compromise and consensus, the increasing
democratisation of life, the greater sensitivity to human rights, the
(^71) Debra Chong, ‘Najib to Meet Pope Benedict, Seeks Diplomatic Links’, The Malaysian
Insider, 4 July 2011 ,www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/najib-to-meet-pope-
benedict-seeks- diplomatic-links.
(^72) Othman,Shari’a Law and the Modern Nation-State,p. 48.
(^73) Amanda J. Whiting, ‘Secularism, the Islamic State and the Malaysian legal profession’
( 2010 ) 5 Asian Journal of Comparative Law 115 at 118.