Utusan in hot water with DAP for third time

Penang DAP has lodged a police report against Utusan Malaysia for its front-page article claiming that it is a sin for Muslims to support the party.

DAP's secretary-general Lim Guan Eng's political secretary Zairil Khir Johari said despite being found guilty twice by the courts for its slanderous reports against his boss, the Malay newspaper has yet to learn its lesson.

Zairil said the report clearly has political motives, which were published on purpose to slander the DAP by implying that the party was "illegal, against the Constitution and its members non-believers who are hostile to Islam".

On the contrary, he added, the party was legal in the eyes of law, and its principles based on justice, fairness, truth, equality and democracy.

"In its 46 years of existence, DAP had never been deregistered or banned; it has always worked within the Malaysia's parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch," Zairil said.

The police report was based on the sensational headline Haram sokong DAP on the front page of Utusan Malaysia and in its ensuing reports on DAP and the position of Islam in the country.

In its Aug 8 publication, on Page 5, the newspaper said it was a sin for Muslims to support a party that openly rejects the Islamic state and hudud.

The daily quoted Abdullah Sa'amah, the founder of Pondok Geting, a traditional grassroots learning centre  in Tumpat, Kelantan, as saying  that the DAP's struggles were different from those of the MCA and MIC in the BN.

The BN component parties, Abdullah added, were not regarded as non-believers hostile to Islam (kafir harbi).

Zairil (left) said painting the DAP as a party of infidels made it appear as if it was against Islam, which is a "dangerous allegation as it is clearly done with the intention to spark religious and racial sentiments".

He added that the DAP had never been an enemy of any religion and has upheld Islam as the official religion of the federation, while respecting the freedom of other religions.

At the Northeast District police headquarters on Jalan Pattani, Zairil was accompanied by Komtar assemblyperson Ng Wei Aik.