Nanyang urged to withdraw reports and apologise
(Sinchew) – Negeri Sembilan PAS, PKR and NGOs presented a memorandum demanding Nanyang Siang Pau to withdraw its feature series entitled “Looking at the Islamic Penal Law the rational way” and apologise within seven days, at the newspaper’s Seremban office yesterday.
Protest if no apology
They said if Nanyang refused to withdraw the reports and apologise, they would lodge police reports across the country and hold peaceful demonstrations in front of Nanyang’s offices nationwide.
PAS Negeri Sembilan commissioner cum Paroi state assemblyman Hj Mohamad Taufek Abd Ghani said when presenting the memorandum that PAS was of the opinion that the images published in Nanyang were cruel and should not have been selected for publication in relation to the Islamic Penal Law.
“The Islamic Penal Law will never allow such cruel punishments on children. Even though it was not mentioned in the captions that those were the punishments under the Islamic Penal Law, it gave the public an impression that they were the punishments under the Islamic Penal law, as reflected from political leaders’ reactions.
“This is very unfair to us.”
Roundtable meeting proposed
Negeri Sembilan PAS Youth chief Khairil Anuar Abd Wafa said that in one of the photos published, a man was seen holding a microphone beside a punished boy as if he was staging a show, adding that this was not the way punishments were handed out under the Islamic Penal Law.
“Nanyang Siang Pau has an obligation to clarify on this,” he continued.
PKR Rembau divisional secretary Norazizi Abd. Aziz suggested that a roundtable meeting be held between the media and PAS to better understand the true significance of the Islamic Penal Law.
PKR Teluk Kemang division committee member Muhd Saufi bin Miad said they were not censuring Nanyang, as they believed such undesirable development could have stemmed from a lack of real understanding of the Islamic Penal law.
Also present were Negeri Sembilan PAS Supporter Congress chairman Yao Con Seng and members from NGOs.
