PETALING JAYA, Jan 19 – A furious MIC leader today lashed out at Malay nationalist movement Perkasa’s chief Ibrahim Ali for fanning religious and communal tension by provoking potential violence against non-Muslims.
MIC strategic director S Vell Paari said the government must take criminal action against Ibrahim immediately to stop the situation from getting out of hand.
“He should not be allowed to go on saying what he wants and wherever he wants and in the presence of whoever it may be to intimidate and threaten any Malaysian, let it be Muslims or non Muslims,” Vell Paari said today.
“To incite a criminal act against a fellow Malaysian due to religious difference is criminal in nature and action should be taken against him.”
He also urged the Barisan Nasional leadership to immediately clarify it’s stand on Perkasa.
“First and foremost he is a nobody and not a decision or policy maker in BN. He can’t be allowed to go on pretending that he is speaking on behalf of the BN.
“And to see him making such provocative remarks in the presence of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad is not going to look good on BN, especially with elections just around the corner,” he said.
He said people like Ibrahim should be isolated and made known that Malaysia has moved forward, and not stuck in a time warp.
He also said that he would be urging his party leadership to clearly state their stand against Perkasa to the BN leadership.
Vell Paari was responding to Ibrahim’s call earlier today for Muslims to seize and burn copies of Bibles which contain the term “Allah” or other Arabic religious words.
Stressing that he was not instigating communal tension, the Pasir Mas MP insisted that it was the only way to stop non-Muslims from stirring the sensitivities and sentiments of the majority of population in the country.
Ibrahim had said certain non-Muslim groups were out to provoke the Muslims by using the term “Allah” or any other Arabic religious words in the Bible.
He said this at the Perkasa conference in Penang today. The chief guest to the conference was Mahathir.
Vell Paari also had a word of advise for Mahathir.
“Please enjoy your retirement and please stop making life difficult for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak who is working his heart out to fix the mistakes that was done in the past.
“Your recognition of Perkasa is acting detrimental to the effort of Najib and BN,” he said.
