A-G draws flak for defending Ibrahim

The Star
by P. ARUNA

PETALING JAYA: The Attorney-General’s Chambers has come under criticism for its defence of the “burn Malay language Bibles” remarks of Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali.

The NGO Centre For A Better Tomorrow said the Attorney-General should publish guidelines on prosecutorial discretion to avoid being accused of selective prosecution.

The NGO, which champions moderation, said public prosecutors in England, Canada, Hong Kong and the United States already had such guidelines for serious offences and high-profile cases.

“By operating within the guidelines, the prosecutors in these countries could stand up to intense public scrutiny.

“Likewise, our Attorney-General would be able to defend his prosecutorial decisions better if such guidelines existed here.

“A case in point is the decision not to prosecute Ibrahim Ali over his Bible-burning remarks while those who uttered far less inflammatory words were swiftly hauled up,” said its co-president Lim Chee Wee in a statement yesterday.

On Monday, the Attorney-General’s Chambers said that Ibrahim’s call for the burning of Malay language Bibles “does not fall within the definition of a statement with a seditious tendency under the Sedition Act 1948” and was clearly to defend the sanctity of Islam.

Ibrahim made the statement in January last year with regard to individuals who had purportedly distributed Bibles containing the word “Allah” to students, including Malays, at SMK Jelutong in Penang.

Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang said the threat to burn the Bibles or other religious books was clearly seditious, no matter the circumstances or context.

“We understand that the A-G’s Chambers has the discretion of whether or not to prosecute the case.

“However, we are of the view that the A-G’s Chambers should not have passed judgment on the matter and should have allowed the judiciary to decide,” he said in a statement.

Council of Churches Malaysia gene­ral-secretary Rev Dr Hermen Shastri said the Attorney-General’s defence of the decision not to charge Ibrahim was unacceptable.

“It speaks about the defence of one religion, but what about other religions.

“Where does one draw the line? In a multi-racial and multi-religious society, the law should apply equally to all,” he said.

Christian Federation of Malaysia chairman Rev Dr Eu Hong Seng said the organisation stood by its earlier stand that the failure to prosecute Ibrahim would encourage ex­­tremists to take similar actions against non-Muslim communities.

MIC Youth chief C. Sivarraajh said he was surprised by the Attorney-General’s decision as Ibrahim’s statement was “clearly seditious”.