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VIP speaker: Sultan Azlan Shah accompanying Blair to the Law Lecture in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. — Bernama

©Bernama (Used by permission)

• Blair: More than one Abraham House can be set up to promote greater interfaith understanding
• Former British PM says inter-faith dailogue does address root causes of terrorism

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 (Bernama) -- While abiding by the rule of law could give governments a headache, ultimately it outweighs the dire need for judicial freedom in any state, former British prime minister Tony Blair said Friday.

He said the rule of law ensured that politicians were not above the law and that their actions were governed by the rule of the land.

"Although the rule of law is an initiation of political leaders, like me, it is also a vital component for political success as it ensures an orderly society.

"It upholds the independence of the judiciary and at the same time, upholds fairness of the courts," he said when presenting a lecture entitled 'Upholding The Rule of Law: A Reflection'.

The lecture was the 22nd Sultan Azlan Shah Law lecture series organised by University Malaya.

Blair, who was British prime minister from May 1997 to June 2007, said one of the hardest things he encountered as prime minister was not making decisions but implementing the decisions made.

"This is because of the bureaucracy involved. The law comes first. Change may be quicker if it was not the law standing in the way. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, we decided to enact anti-terrorism laws but some of these laws ran smack against human rights values, like it was against human rights to prosecute someone forcibly," he told more than 1,000 people who attended the lecture.

He said the British government therefore, took extreme care in drafting its anti-terrorism laws but then again, convicting a suspect under these acts must be beyond reasonable doubt.

"But we could not prove beyond reasonable doubt. The House of Lords were adamant on this. But we could not allow these suspected terrorist to walk the streets. The House of Lords wanted these suspects convicted beyond reasonable doubt. But then terror struck. More than 10 people were killed," said Blair.

The former premier also said that while the rule of law was an important element in the judiciary, judges too, played a pivotal role which was to uphold the fairness of the courts.

"Judges too have a role to play... they must also follow the law. They should never be tainted with corruption. The public's confidence in the judiciary must be upheld at all times," he added.

Blair said a nation could have the best judicial system in place but if the judges of the country were tainted with allegations, then it was still a major problem.

He said there should never be "a delay in justice or justice only for the rich" as the rule of law required clear laws which were fair and dispensed at an equally-efficient pace to all who sought justice.

"I feel that the rule of law is necessary to ensure a stable and good government. It is necessary to ensure a peaceful, modern nation which can strive attracting investors who do not fear that their investment could be wiped out by a single law suit of a powerful person of the nation," he said.

Blair: More than one Abraham House can be set up to promote greater interfaith understanding

By Azril Annuar & Ahmad Zukiman Zain

KUALA LUMPUR, August 1 (Bernama) -- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says that he does not discount the possibility of his interfaith foundation setting up more than one Abraham House as a means to promote greater understanding and diffuse tensions in problematic areas.

"I think we start with one (first)," he said in reference to the one to be set up in central London soon.

"That's the beginning and in time I think it would be good to have such centres in all the main places, including in this part of Asia as well," he said in an interview with Bernama Friday.

Blair said there were potentially a lot of tensions in this part of the world "although Malaysia is a very good example of interfaith cooperation."

The Blair Faith Foundation currently deals with Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism to promote greater interfaith interaction, dialogue and understanding amongst one another and those without any faith.

The proposed Abraham House will be a centre for understanding Judaism, Christianity and Islam and a place for people with deep religious beliefs to come together to work for a more peaceful and just world and tackle some of today's most pressing issues.

Blair explained that Abraham House would also be a standing exhibition and museum for members of the Abrahamic faiths -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism -- although people from other faiths can also use it.

The centre, he said, would be a place for people to know more about their religion, explore their roots and a place where they can both discover what they share and tackle their differences.

Blair also said the foundation would also seek to produce good quality education materials because he believed that some previously produced materials about religion were very poor, misleading and at times, dangerous.

Referring to another initiative of the foundation in the eradication of killer diseases, Blair said its 'Malaria No More' campaign was to provide bed nets to prevent deaths from malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Citing the reasons why it was important to involve the different faiths in this initiative, he said that in Sub-Sahara Africa about a million children die every year through malaria.

"In Sub-Saharan Africa, 40 percent of them are Muslims. So you've got Christian and Muslim children dying. And in a lot of these African countries, the health clinics are many, many miles from where the people live.

"But actually each of these villagers or towns who have a church or a mosque. And so what we want to do is try and use the religious centres as distribution centres for people of different faiths and not just treating Christian people,"

Asked whether he was confident that he could get the funds for one million bed nets by Sept 25 this year to prevent malaria in that region, he replied: "I think we're pretty much there in terms of funding."

Stressing that he was not just talking, Blair said he was going to make sure that his foundation resulted in concrete and specific actions.

Blair, who is on his first visit to Malaysia to give a lecture on the Rule of Law at the 22nd Sultan Azlan Shah Law Lecture here today, said he was actually disappointed that he had just discovered Malaysia.

"After some days (in Malaysia), I find it's a wonderful country, really beautiful country, (with) very warm people. Very lively, actually.

"In cultural terms and every other sense and there is a lot going on which you can rightly be proud. This is my first visit, I hope it won't be my last, I'm sure it won't be," said the former premier who also admitted during the interview that he was a fan of Newcastle United FC.

"I know many people out here who are either Manchester United or Arsenal fans," said the casually dressed Blair who appeared relaxed and cheerful for the interview.

Former British PM says inter-faith dailogue does address root causes of terrorism

By Mikhail Raj Abdullah & Azril Annuar

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 (Bernama) -- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says that inter-faith dialogue does address the root causes of terrorism for it lessens ignorance and promotes greater understanding among people of different religions.

While acknowledging that the roots of terrorism could be traced back to injustice as well as poverty, he said there were "specific doctrines of hatred that seize hold of young people's imagination."

"The things that are most dangerous is when religious fanaticism becomes their motivating force in their lives and that's what gives rise to this terrorism," he said during an exclusive interview with Bernama here Friday.

"Terrorism is not just restricted to Islam, but when there is more understanding and education, there will be less ignorance, less hate and less conflict," said Blair, who was casually dressed for the interview.

He was responding to a question whether inter-faith dialogue could address the root causes of terrorism since Western governments have failed to do so despite repeated calls by the Islamic world since the 9/11 terror attacks.

Blair said ignorance was also manifested in the West where sometimes a lot of people there do not understand why Muslims feel resentful over attacks against Islamic states and Muslims.

Against such a scenario, he said the most important thing was to establish that bridgehead from people from one part of the world to another because of the ignorance of people of different faiths.

Malaysia is among proponents of efforts to address the root causes of terror attacks and has consistently made calls not to link Islam with terrorism.

Blair was the British prime minister when the US-British coalition force attacked Iraq, which was among the causes which prompted terror groups to sprout up and unleash their terror attacks.

The former premier, who retired in June last year and is now the envoy to the Middle East, was in Malaysia to deliver a lecture on the rule of law at the 22nd Sultan Azlan Shah Shah Law Lecture Friday organised by Universiti Malaya.

He has also been busy promoting inter-faith dialogue after he launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in May this year.

Among other things, the foundation aims to promote greater understanding between faiths via education, partnerships inter-faith interaction as well as help organisations whose object is to counter extremism and promote reconciliation in matters of religious faith.

Said Blair: "When people get taught what is actually a perversion of the proper faith, of Islam, which is that Christians are your enemies, then that is very damaging.

"There's a lot of ignorance about what those faiths are. Sometimes in the West, I come across teachings about Islam for example that is really shocking, surprising and not helpful at all and likewise there's a misunderstanding about what Christians and Jews believe."

He cited how some people disagreed "with my decisions taken in protecting Muslims in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq. But whether you agree or disagree but it's important that at least you understand the motives for that."

Blair said that terrorist attacks were not the proper faith of Islam at all.

"So, an inter-faith foundation that is built up in educating people of what the truth is about, faiths can actually help significantly diminish the root causes of terrorism," he said.

Blair said his foundation had covered a lot of ground in getting together people of different religious faiths in understanding one another better.

As such, he said one of the main purposes of the foundation was to rescue religious faith from extremism and irrelevance.

Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year, said he does not want younger generations, including his own children, perceiving religion as a strange piece of tradition with no relevance for the future.

Asked what he would do for world peace if he had a magic wand, Blair said that he would do two very important things:

"First of all, peace in Israel and Palestine, I think this is the important part in making for a more peaceful world."

Secondly, he said his foundation would try to get people from different religious faiths to cooperate together in tackling the millennium development goals such as eradication of poverty and killer diseases.

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