What will Malaysia say to India in its official reply on Zakir Naik?

I really hope ordinary Malaysians will eventually get to read the official reply by Malaysia to India’s request to extradite Zakir Naik back to face charges there.

I wonder what the contents will be and how Malaysia will make it palatable to India. Just like we are agitated when others are not cooperative in our pursuit of Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low), I wonder how India would react after receiving our official reply.

Would Malaysia say we do not take seriously the India-Malaysia extradition treaty? Under what circumstances could Malaysia negate the obligations under the agreement?

Would Malaysia say Naik will not receive a fair trial in India? How do we put it then? Are we going to imply that India is persecuting Naik? Are we going to insinuate that the Indian judicial system is inherently biased against people like Naik because he is a Muslim preacher? But how do we make assumptions without evidence?

Would Malaysia say we will stand by Naik no matter what because he is a Muslim and Malaysia is an Islamic country? Can we declare that Malaysia would never send a Muslim to face trial in a non-Muslim country, regardless of the person’s citizenship and crime?

Would Malaysia say we are prepared to face all eventualities, including diplomatic and trade setbacks simply because Naik is important to Malaysia’s local politics?

India is a functioning democracy with more than 200 million Muslims. I am not too sure India would deliberately and blatantly do something to harm the religious harmony in that country.

However, if there are specific crimes committed, which could be proven in open court, should we not allow the due process to take its course?

I think India did not just want an official reply from Malaysia. That would be too simplistic.

India wants to know the unambiguous and unequivocal reason why Malaysia is denying their request to extradite Zakir Naik.

TK Chua is an FMT reader.