Just because of a sole complainant, Selangor DAP state rep comes under fire over ‘azan’ din from surau

 

SUCH is the fate of Teratai state assemblyman Yew Jia Haur who tried to mediate in a dispute over the sounding of the azan (call to prayer) and the holding of Friday prayers between a non-Muslim resident and the surau committee in his constituency only to see his goodwill backfired.

The first-term DAP state representative under the Pandan parliamentary constituency is now accused of playing victim after allegedly siding the non-Muslim resident by arranging a dialogue session between residents and the surau management with the viral meeting minutes seemingly favourable to the complainant.

However, a retaliation by the Taman Seraya surau committee by lodging 10 police reports at the Pandan Indah police station on Friday (April 24) alone had led to cancellation of the proposed dialog session on Saturday (April 25).

The meeting was supposed to involve the police, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) and the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ).

Interestingly, Yew is further accused of making a U-turn as his service centre has also lodged a police report against the complainant who was first speculated to be “an expatriate China citizen”.

Root causes

As per a Malaysiakini report, surau chairman Abdullah Sulaiman recounted that the issue began around 2021 but was not as aggressive as this year in targeting their religious practices.

“There is now extreme harassment where three matters were sent via WhatsApp personally by the individual; the first being the issue of the azan,” he told a media conference.

“Suddenly, another issue arose where he was dissatisfied because we hold Friday prayers. This is despite JAIS having accredited us with permission to hold Friday prayers received in 2019.

“He (the complainant) also requested that the Friday prayers which have been conducted since Nov 15, 2019 be stopped because they disrupt traffic flow.

“We lodged police reports following harassment that is deemed to be motivated by issues of religion, royalty and race (3R).”

Apparently, the police have cleared the air with regard to the identity of the complainant given Selangor police chief Datuk Shazeli Kahar has confirmed that a 46-year-old local man has been detained by the police to assist investigations into the case with the suspect arrested in Pandan Indah, Ampang at about 3pm yesterday (April 26).

“Checks found the suspect has no prior criminal record while a urine screening test returned negative,” he pointed out in a statement.

The case is being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, Section 298 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

Earlier, police had placed the name of a local man suspected of involvement in the Ampang azan petition issue on a special watchlist to prevent him from leaving the country.

Despite Yew denied banning the call to prayer or even Friday prayers at the Taman Seraya Surau, detractors as expected would capitalise and politicise the matter to tarnish the image of DAP as if the party is insensitive to the position of Islam as the official religion of the country. 

 - Focus Malaysia