Call On Jeff Ooi To Resign Over Remarks

(Bernama) — The Penang Islamic Forum for the Muslims (Forum) has called on Member of Parliament for Jelutong Jeff Ooi to apologise to Muslims and resign as chief minister's chief of staff for allegedly ridiculing Islam.

Otherwise, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng should sack him for likening syariah (Islamic law) to extremism, said a Forum representative, Md Roslan Hashim.

Ooi's remarks were unwarranted as the state government had propagated that it wanted to emulate Umayyad caliph Umar ibn Abdul Aziz's administration in pursuing "Amal Ma'ruf Nahi Mungkar", Md Roslan told reporters after handing over a memorandum at the Chief Minister's Office here Wednesday.

Ooi was reported as saying that Penang municipal councillor Mohd Razali Abdullah was a 'religious extremist' on the ground that he was linked to Jemaah Islah Malaysia (JIM).

Ooi also said that the state was setting a dangerous precedent by allowing an alleged religious extremist to infiltrate the local government.

Md Roslan, who is also a JIM committee member, said Forum would take legal action against Ooi if he did not retract his statement and apologise.

After waiting in vain for Lim for almost one hour, the ten-member Forum delegation finally handed over the memorandum to Deputy Chief Minister Mansor Othman.

Chief Minister's political secretary Ng Wei Aik said Lim could not meet the delegation as he was chairing the state executive council meeting.

Ng said he told the delegation to hand over the memorandum to Ooi as the latter made the statement in his personal capacity.

He said although he told them they he was authorised to receive the memorandum, they refused to budge.

Penang Malaysian Ulama Association deputy president II Hafiz Nordin, who is a member of the delegation, said he regretted that Lim did not avail himself despite a 15-minute power breakdown during the state executive councillor meeting.