Nik Raina’s Borders case : What’s wrong with JAWI ?

by Din Merican (written on September 3, 2013)

This morning,  I was supposed to go to the Jalan Duta Shariah Court to lend my support to Nik Rania Nik Abd. Aziz , the Borders bookstore manager who was wrongly charged by the Jabatan Agama Wilayah Persekutuan (JAWI) for Irshad Manji’s book, Allah, Liberty and Love which was not banned at the time Nik Rania was charged.

In March this year, KL High Court Tudung Judge Datuk Zaleha Yusuf held that JAWI’s actions against Borders and the charge against Nik Raina were unconstitutional and bad in law.

Lawyer Rosli Dahlan and Nik Raina

All that was left to be done was for JAWI to withdraw the charge. That’s not too difficult is it? But see what JAWI has done. Instead of ending this controversy by withdrawing the charge against Nik Raina, JAWI is playing tricks. Like a delinquent juvenile, JAWI is giving all sorts of excuses to hit back at this poor Malay girl whose only sin was that JAWI needed someone to charge after having conducted a dramatic raid on the fortress of heresy, which was what JAWI must have considered Borders Bookstore to be. Remember Nik Raina was the only senior Muslim staff on duty at the time. They could not charge her senior, who is a non-Muslim.

So, on  August 28, when the charge was to be withdrawn, JAWI said that the  Shariah judge was not free and the case was fixed on September 3 which was this morning. Last night, I received a telephone call that the case will not be called this morning because there was a mistake over the court date. How juvenile and irresponsible JAWI can be!

From my Borders’ source I saw the letter from Borders’ lawyers exposing all of JAWI’s tricks. I am not going to say much more. I just want you, my friends, associates and readers around the world to judge for yourself how ridiculous the excuses given by JAWI to delay this case. I am just too pissed off with what’s happening to our country, this land of Endless Possibilities, especially when our religious authorities behave the way JAWI does. Haven’t they got anything better to do?

I decided that instead of getting angry over all these mindless matters, I would be better off hitting some golf balls with my golf buddies at the RSGC and talk about and laugh at the stupid and infantile actions of the ruling regime. Playing politics 24-7-365  is not the business of government. The real business of government is good governance; that is Government 101 to you and I.

Now, please read this letter (click on to enlarge):