The Government has lost credibility viaa usinsg desperate means to try to win back Malay votes. Thus far, many Malays have shown that they are no more 'katak di bawah tempurung'. Many Malays are able to see through the tactics used by certain desperate parties are using the Allah issue. I am Malay and I certainly do not support the furore created by zealots. Allah does not need the help of these zealots. These zealots are better suited in the company of satan in hell.

Khairy the BN YOUTH LEADER has come out openly to condem those illetrate and vicious persons who torch and firebom
churches.
This is a clear sign of weakness of such ignorant and uncivilzed persons
who when caught now must be put away for life.
These dangerous elements if allowed to conyinure will ignite civil conflict and futher damage the good muhhibah that has exsisted in malaysia between the different races.
Now is the time for the BN leadership including the prime minister to follow
the good example of KHAIRY to condem and bring to justice to prove that they can be respected as real leaders

Firstly, in response to Dr Jeff Balan, I think it is more a case of extremist sectarian elements rather than those who are "illiterate" or "uncivilized" which have resorted to the undoubtably questionable actions involving molotov cocktails and so on. There are many people who are illiterate and would be labelled "uncivilized" just because they do not culturally succumb to a life way which is socially commonplace in many parts of the globe yet many of these individuals would not necessarily be of the mindset that promotes havock and social discord.

Secondly, relative to the issue at large, way before the High Court's initial ruling on the 31st December 2009 stating that the prohibition was unconstitutional, the whole thing started off from a culturally exclusivist standpoint anyhow - the basis of the prohibition was one of cultural insensitivity and control by sectarian elements in one culture as to how other cultures should represent themselves.

... Dan sejahtera atasNya pada hari Dia dilahirkan, pada hari Dia wafat, dan pada hari Dia dibangkitkan hidup kembali."

(Maryam, 19:33)

To try and control which tongues can be used and by whom is automatically going into a politicocultural domain, violating both personal and collective rights to freedom of linguistic expression.

This is a question of factuality and liberty within language as this whole issue alludes to. Factually speaking, many languages use variations of this name to represent God, so no one has a right to monopolize language. I bet you even the Qur'an does not say anything about language exclusivity - just a random guess but I'll propose that it doesn't on the grounds that common sense tells me, all it is - is linguistic translation. If we want to be really specific, this term is not originally a Bahasa Melayu name anyhow as it is an Arabic name having intermingled with the Melayu language as so many foreign words actually have done historically anyhow. This makes the Melayu language a fascinating cultural blend.

Although this issue is a different matter to the one about cultural integrity, cultural integrity as an inherent value condemns language exclusivity – that is, exclusivist claims by a section of society on who is and who isn’t allowed to use a particular language. The fact that this issue concerning a translation of the name of the Lord should spill over into an argument about who is allowed to and who isn’t relative to publishing and distributing information in Bahasa Melayu is absolutely ridiculous!!! This only goes against the universal sanctity reserved for the Creator in the first place!!! Nobody has the right to claim exclusivity over a name referring to the Creator of the universe. There are many many languages in the whole wide world, and it is a fact that a vast proportion of these actually recognize the existence of the one and only Creator (as opposed to many gods).

And yet none of these people who speak these tongues ever claim exclusive use of either the Creator’s name in their language or the language itself for that matter. If given the opportunity, they would most likely willingly share both of these. A translation of a name from one language to another is simply a translation and translation can be exercised freely or should be able to be for that matter.