Refusal to charge Ibrahim, Zulkifli shows double standards, says Guan Eng

The Attorney-General's Chambers’ (AGC) refusal to prosecute Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Datuk Zulkifli Noordin for spewing extremist views is a clear-cut case of double standards and would lead politicians to condone such wrongdoings, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (pic) said today.

He said the DAP supported action taken against Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee for their Facebook post said to insult the Ramadan holy month and demanded similar action against Ibrahim and Zulkifli for their inflammatory statements.

"This is a clear case of double standards by the AGC which has led Malaysians to question why the young “Alvivi” couple can be punished for their Facebook posting but not the BN candidate for Shah Alam Zulkifli Noordin’s anti-Hindu statements in YouTube, when both use the internet as a medium.

"Why can action be taken against the “Alvivi” couple within a week after a police report was lodged but yet no action taken against Ibrahim Ali even though there were countless police reports lodged six months ago?" Lim asked in a statement.

The Penang Chief Minister said the cases showed no doubt that Barisan Nasional (BN) practised selective prosecution by only punishing anti-Muslim statements but not anti-non-Muslim statements.

"These revelations by the Inspector-General of Police of “No Further Action” has emboldened more Umno ministers to come out of the closet to openly support the racist and extremist policies of Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa," he said.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said yesterday the police had submitted investigation papers on Zulkifli's alleged insult of Hinduism but there was no further action due to lack of evidence.

However, police have yet to receive any word from the chambers on Ibrahim's threat to burn bibles despite numerous complaints against him.

Lim pointed out that Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan had “come out from the closet” and openly condoned Ibrahim's right to burn the Bible or Zulkifli’s anti-Hindu insults.

"With the Umno party elections at the end of the year, Malaysians can expect more Umno leaders like Abdul Rahman to “come out of the closet” to reveal their political orientation as racist and extremists."

He said DAP leader said Abdul Rahman had defended Ibrahim by saying that Ibrahim and sex blogger Alvivi’s case cannot be compared as they were attacking another religion and could threaten interfaith harmony.

He added that Abdul Rahman stressed that what Ibrahim said was normal as Ibrahim only wanted to correct the error of printing the said bibles, and burning them was the proper thing to do just as Muslims burn copies of the Quran that have misprints.

"Can a Muslim burn a Bible in anger and protest?

"Non-Muslims should not be allowed to burn any holy books of another religion whether there are misprints or not as it is best left to the respective religions."

Remarks that burning the Bible was “normal” and “the proper thing to do” by Abdul Rahman would have three immediate implications, Lim said.

"One, Abdul Rahman has let Cabinet down by challenging his non-Muslim Cabinet colleagues to either resign or accept Abdul Rahman’s open disrespect of their faiths by continuing to work with him.

"Two, letting Malaysia down by showing that he wants to be a Minister only for Muslims and that he is not afraid of offending non-Muslims.

Thirdly, letting down his non-Muslim supporters in Kota Belud who voted for him in the last general elections and hiding so well his disrespect for non-Muslims."

He added that no Muslim Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leader had said they supported Ibrahim’s call to burn the Bible.

"Now that an Umno minister has publicly condoned Ibrahim’s actions, what is the position of  the non-Muslim ministers vis-a-vis Abdul Rahman?"