KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 -- Lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla has filed a lawsuit against the Malaysian government, as he wants the Bahasa Malaysia translation of the Federal Constitution to be the authoritative text or to override the original text which is in English.

In his court challenge filed last night at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Haniff is seeking two main court orders.

He wants the court to declare that the Federal Constitution's text in the national language is the authoritative text under Article 160B, and that this national language text would prevail over the text in the English language, if there are any conflicts or discrepancies between the two texts.

Alternatively, he wants the court to order the Malaysian govern...