Widespread misconceptions about Islamic teachings continue to persist among Malaysians, says Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.
Speaking during a session titled "Live to Lead: The Journey of the Chief Justice" on Monday (Jan 20), the outgoing Chief Justice noted that these misunderstandings often skew public perceptions and influence reactions to high-profile cases.
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Speaking during a session titled "Live to Lead: The Journey of the Chief Justice" on Monday (Jan 20), the outgoing Chief Justice noted that these misunderstandings often skew public perceptions and influence reactions to high-profile cases.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening everyone and welcome to University of the Year.
00:07In your role as a leader today, do you share that values with your staff, perhaps with your team, with even perhaps your children?
00:17Because we're trying to see how those values not only impacted you professionally, but also domestically and personally.
00:26Maybe you could share some thoughts about that.
00:29I do share. I do share the principles that I hold dear to with my officers, with some of the judges, whenever I have the opportunity.
00:39And with the community, because we do have sessions called Meet and Greet.
00:44I share with them my understanding of Islam, the faith that I, because I think of the greatest of respect, I have said this to many people.
00:55I think generally the public perception of Islam amongst us Malaysians is sometimes distorted.
01:04So that was how we see things, you know, not in the proper perspective.
01:12So when we speak about Islam, for example, it's all about justice.
01:17Islam does not teach us that we look at the colour, at the race or at the religion of someone, no.
01:25Social justice is paramount in Islam.
01:28And when I spoke to my officers and also the sessions that I had with some of the groups,
01:38I enlightened them on the fact that there was the first written constitution in the world is the Piyajam Madinah.
01:47The constitution written in the era of Prophet Rasulullah, peace be upon him.
01:53And our federal constitution is not much, there's no difference.
01:59Essentially what we have now, the provisions in our federal constitution are aligned, are consistent with the provisions that were present in the Piyajam Madinah or the constitution of Madinah then.
02:18So when people complain about, when we decide cases upholding the federal constitution, for example,
02:26and some personalities made comments that the constitution of Malaysia is a constitution drafted by the colonial,
02:36then I would tell my officers and some of my judges that the same person who had made this remark
02:45had also taken it uphold of office to protect, preserve and defend the same constitution.
02:51So that's the reality.
02:56That is a very powerful statement, isn't it?
02:58I think when we think about the fact that the constitution stands for so much,
03:06and just now at the launch of the Asli Khaled essay writing competition,
03:13you also alluded to the fact that we do not just interpret the constitution within its four corners.
03:21We interpret the constitution based on our constitutional history.
03:26And do you think therefore your belief in this constitutionalism has some synergies with your own value system?
03:36The value system that you talked about just now in terms of tolerance and so on.
03:41I suppose the agenda behind my question is very much that those values really do inhabit us as Malaysians, don't they?
03:52So I wonder how you make of this argument that the constitutionalism idea is actually quite a Malaysian,
04:03a very Malaysianized issue or Malaysianized possession, if you like.
04:09Indeed, that's true.
04:11Because there's nothing un-Islamic about having a federal constitution like ours,
04:16where every citizen is to be accorded equal status, regardless of race and religion.
04:21Every Malaysian deserves the right, as equal as everybody deserves equal standing.
04:27And that was what Biaga Balina says.
04:32So whatever I believe, how I interpret the constitution, I think is correct.
04:40And I hope it's going to be accepted from now on.