“At about 1.20 p.m. today, a fake and fraudulent posting was made in my name on the Bungaraya and BeritaMalaysia email lists, purporting to be a media statement released by me in Penang today, under the heading: ‘Malaysia: Christian State versus Islamic State Arguments’. The Bungaraya mailing list is an Internet mailing list of DAP statements and response from its listers.“The posting purports to be from "DAP MALAYSIA" <[email protected]>.
“Ronnie Liu, DAP National Publicity Secretary, has informed me by phone that he had not made any such posting.
“The fake statement by the imposter is as follows:
“The series of articles purportedly written under the name of Patricia Martinez claiming that Malaysia is actually a Christian State has raised more doubts in the continuing debate about PAS’ proposed Islamic State.
“These doubts and debates reaffirm the DAP’s position that Malaysia should not be declared an Islamic State. The Constitution of Malaysia provides for the existence of a secular state and the DAP fully supports this position.
“Unfortunately the PAS is still playing up the Islamic State issue in the Indera Kayangan by election in Perlis. This will only bring disaster to the opposition chances. The DAP calls upon PAS to come to terms with their endless religious arguments. It is obvious now that many of PAS’ arguments have little or no basis within their own religious framework. The fact that many of their closely held beliefs like the punishment of stoning to death for adultery and apostatsy under PAS’ proposed Hudud Laws are derived from the Christian Bible and do not have any basis at all in the Quranic worldview, will continue to generate endless debate.
“The DAP also calls upon PAS to differentiate cultural traits like covering the head for women and not make such issues cornerstones for implementation of an Islamic system. Despite their Biblical origins such teachings are not paramount anymore even in Christianity. Such minor issues not only raise concerns among non Muslims but also sustain the endless divisions among the Muslims themselves. PAS should relook their position on the Islamic State and not be dogmatic in upholding outdated Judeo-Christian Biblical teachings.“Christendom has distanced itself from the Bible’s more debilitating edicts. It will be sad to see PAS trying to shackle themselves to these same outdated Biblical edicts.
“The DAP reiterates its call that Malaysia should never be declared an Islamic state.”
This fake and fraudulent message is highly mischievous and even
vicious, aimed at instigating inter-religious ill-will between the
Muslims and the Christians as well as to foment misunderstanding and even
animosity against me among Muslims. I condemn the perpetrator of
such irresponsible action unreservedly.
Last Wednesday, there was a similar incident when a fake posting was put up in various mailing lists on the Internet in the name of Dr. Patricia Martinez, Malaysia’s only non-Muslim with a Ph.D. in Islam earning her doctorate in Islamic Studies from Temple University, which belittled Islam and was calculated to arouse misunderstanding and anger against her by the Muslims.
I believe that the same impostor or group is responsible for both postings and both may be part of a larger plan to cause mischief and evil in our multi-racial and multi-religious nation.
The DAP is opposed to PAS’ Islamic State not because DAP is anti-Islam or because of Christian religious teachings - but because it is not suitable or appropriate for a plural Malaysia committed to democracy, human rights, women’s rights, minorities rights, development and modernisation.
DAP is committed to promoting inter-religious understanding, co-existence and harmony which is the very antithesis of the fake posting, which only wants to see inter-religious misunderstanding, distrust and conflict in the country.
I call on the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai to give personal attention to the increasing spate of cybercrimes to foment inter-religious misunderstanding and conflict in Malaysia by impostors faking inflammatory postings to mailing lists.
Can the police explain the progress of its investigations into the police report lodged by Patricia Martinez about the fraudulent posting in her name last week?
Parliament has passed the Computer Crimes Act but the police does not seem to have a cyber-crime division which is equal to the task of combatting cyber-crimes and this should be given priority attention by the police, government and Parliament.
(11/1/2002)