AG’s chambers practising double standard

DAP secretary-general says this is because of the Cabinet’s tacit approval and indifference towards the rights of non-Muslims.

PETALING JAYA: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today accused the AG’s chambers of practising a double standard for refusing to charge Ibrahim Ali for his call to burn Malay and Iban copies of the Bible.

He said this was tantamount to the AG’s chambers behaving like a defence counsel for Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali. Lim said this was because of the Cabinet’s tacit approval and indifference towards the rights of non-Muslims.

“Even though several Cabinet members have individually said that Ibrahim Ali should be charged for trampling with impunity over the sensitivities of Christians, they have all passively submitted to the Cabinet’s decision to fully endorse the AGC’s decision to let Ibrahim Ali escape unpunished,” Lim said.

Lim added the AGC’s explanation yesterday that Ibrahim’s call for Bibles to be burned must be viewed in its entire context, and that the Perkasa chief’s statement was aimed at the Bibles distributed to Muslim students of SMK Jelutong in Penang only, was wholly ridiculous.

“Where is it stated under sedition laws that an exception can be made for a statement made with seditious tendencies merely because of the context it was viewed?,” he asked.

Lim said the AGC also confirmed that the Bibles were distributed outside the school in Jelutong, Penang last year, but said it had decided to close the case because there was no proof that the religious texts were meant for Malay students alone.

“What is even more incomprehensible was that the distribution of the Bibles that caused Ibrahim Ali to call for it to be burned, was not in Bahasa Malaysia nor in Iban but in English and did not contain the word Allah,” he said.

“Clearly the AGC is engaging in sheer nonsense by claiming that the faith of Muslim students is at stake when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem and Sarawak Governor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud attended Christian missionary schools without having their faith shaken nor were there any recorded cases of missionary schools attempting to convert their Muslim students,” he said.