The Malaysian Bar - Bar Council wants probe on leaked church raid video

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Bar Council wants probe on leaked church raid video

Saturday, 27 August 2011 09:04am

©The Malaysian Insider (Used by permission)

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — The Malaysian Bar today urged the authorities to investigate who leaked the video of the raid at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) preliminary report on the incident.

While welcoming the Selangor government’s formation of a “hearing committee” to resolve the controversy, Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee said the leaked information should also be probed as it had exposed the 12 Muslims present at the church to “unwarranted and unwelcomed scrutiny”.

“While Jais’s investigations are still ongoing, and thus not yet the subject of a report to the Sultan of Selangor and the Menteri Besar, nevertheless how such material came to be made publicly available must also be probed, as it represents an unacceptable breach of security and the confidentiality of an ongoing investigation,” he said in a statement today.

The leaked information has been published on several pro-Umno blogs and shared extensively on cyberspace.

Lim said the incident suggests that Jais’s investigation has already been compromised and that the leaked information is being used for partisan political purposes.

“This is wholly unprofessional and unethical behaviour, and cannot for a moment be tolerated by right-thinking people,” he said.

The Selangor government recently announced the formation of the committee which includes Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Selangor Mufti Datuk Setia Mohd Tamyes Abd Wahid and his deputy Datuk Abdul Majid Omar as members.

The committee, purportedly formed on advice from the Selangor Sultan, is tasked to investigate the controversial incident and end the ongoing squabble between religious communities.

Lim said that apart from probing the incident, the committee should also look into the issue of Jais’s jurisdiction in using non-Syariah enactments to justify its entry into DUMC’s premises on August 3.

“This raises serious questions whether JAIS over-reached itself and exceeded the extent of its authority, and whether its act of incursion into DUMC lacked proper legal foundation,” he said.

The department’s enforcement officers and the police had inspected DUMC during a thanksgiving dinner after receiving a complaint that Muslims were being proselytised during the function.

Lim also urged the Selangor government to expand the membership of the hearing committee to include non-Muslim representatives as the panel’s task is to resolve an issue between both the Muslims and Christians.

“Such problems require broad inclusivity and wide consultation,” he said.

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