Dominic J. Nardi, Jr.

Last week, I asked how and why Malaysia’s High Court ruled against the government and allowed the Herald to use the word “Allah” in its publication. After all, Malaysia’s political elites are known to exert influence over judges, especially for politically-sensitive cases. The answer: it didn’t. According to The Straits Times, the High Court suspended its decision pending an appeal to the Court of Appeals.

This sounds a bit more like the Malaysia I know. The elites exert the greatest influence over the higher courts. This happens in courts in other competitive authoritarian systems. It is much cheaper and less difficult to monitor and influence a small group of senior justices than try to control the entire judiciary. Furthermore, judicial appeal to the highest court serves as a signaling device, telling political elites that those are the most controversial cases. Malaysia’s elites seem to use this model, generally not interfering with lower cases but making sure the senior ranks of the judiciary remain loyal.

I’ll post another entry as soon as the Court of Appeals makes its decision. In the meantime, I think it’s fair to predict that the Court of Appeals will reverse the High Court’s decision.

While at first this question might sound more appropriate for a theological seminar than a legal blog, it actually does raise some constitutional implications. On New Year’s Eve, the Malaysian High Court struck down a government ban on non-Muslims using the word “Allah” to describe God. In 2007, the government had suspended the Catholic Church’s Herald after it used the word. I’d like to read the final opinion to better understand the constitutional reasoning (it’s not yet posted on the Malaysian Judiciary website), but, given the country’s history with blasphemy cases, including a threat to sue the Malaysian Bar for using the word “Allah” on its website, this is an interesting development indeed. I’d also be particularly interested in learning how or why the court felt empowered enough to challenge the ban, especially given the judiciary’s historic reluctance to expand constitution rights (see my earlier post discussing administrative law in Asia).

Anyway, Rule by Hukum wishes you all a Happy New Year. Thank you for joining us for our first few months on the web. Next year will surely have many new and exciting developments in the Southeast Asian legal world, and I’ll try to cover at least some of them.