Abdul Gani’s decision not to press charges against Al-Islam reporters without extracting public apology indefensible and dangerous precedent inimical to 1Malaysia concept


The decision of the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail not to press charges against the two Al-Islam journalists who desecrated a sacred Catholic ritual without extracting a public apology is indefensible and a dangerous precedent inimical to the 1Malaysia concept of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

I can understand the disappointment of Kuala Lumpur Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam over Gani’s decision to drop the case against Al-Islam reporters without any public apology.

Gani said the desecration of the communion wafer by the two Al-Islam reporters at the St. Anthony’s Church in Jalan Robertson near Puduraya, Kuala Lumpur last May was “an act of ignorance, not malice” and that they might have hurt people’s feelings but he was satisfied that they did not intend to offend anyone.

The Attorney-General would not be able to convince the community hurt by the act of desecration with such a lame excuse – what more, without any apology from the perpetrators to show remorse for the religious desecration which must be regarded as an act of heinous insensitivity completely unacceptable in Najib’s 1Malaysia.

Gani said: “In view of the circumstances at that particular time, and in the interests of justice, peace and harmony, I decided not to press charges against them.

He said he had made similar decisions in previous cases involving other religions.

The Attorney-General should realise that he is invoking the name of justice without serving justice or Najib’s 1Malaysia concept at all. Gani is in fact desecrating justice itself.

Malaysians are charitable people and are prepared to forget and even forgive wrongs and offences committed – but there must be proper apology and contrition for a heinous insensitivity like the religious desecration perpetrated by Al-Islam reporters in our plural society.

Or has ignorance become a proper defence for certain categories of heinous criminal offences in Malaysia under Gani?

The Attorney-General should review the case of the two Al-Islam reporters and Al-Islam publication and demand an apology from them for not pressing charges.

If Gani cannot get the two Al-Islam reporters and Al-Islam to tender appropriate public apologies and still refuse to press charges to uphold the law and justice, he should be censured by the Cabinet and Parliament.

Gani should also make public all the other cases where he had also made similar decisions not to prosecute in previous cases involving other religions – to prove that his previous decisions can stand scrutiny and accountability.

  1. #1 by johnnypok on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 12:50 pm

    Go to hell you

  2. #2 by frankyapp on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:14 pm

    If this kind of act is done by a christian in a mosque,would the AG also said the same thing liked he said in this case.

  3. #3 by dagen on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:15 pm

    Oh did he speak in the damage control, declared in the last minute to be off-the-record, thingy in US recently? The one where nazri was absolutely boring and in which he dared some online media people to report and where no one seems to know the whereabout of the other two speakers. Yeah. AG was m.i.a. after landing there on taxpayers’ account and returning also on taxpayers’ account.

    He knows that he is stupid.

  4. #4 by Jamesy on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:26 pm

    “Don’t wait for the Last Judgment – it takes place every day.” – Albert Camus, French Philosopher, Novelist, Essayist and Playwright (1913-1960); Nobel Prize Winner in Literature 1957

  5. #5 by ReformMalaysia on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:30 pm

    The decision of the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail not to press charges against the two Al-Islam journalists, DESPITE OF HAVING A PROOF OF GUILT BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBTS……

    what can we describe this AG as?

    Isn’t this imply that he himself is guilty for selective prosecution? Or is this tantamount to corruption?

  6. #6 by tanjong8 on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:44 pm

    With such an AG and such a government run by UmnoUtusans, for how long shall we wait to give them the boot ?

    We should emulate the Iraqi journalist !

  7. #7 by Godfather on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:49 pm

    Now, who is Johnnpok asking to go to hell ? Sometimes I am perplexed by our own supporters.

  8. #8 by Godfather on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:51 pm

    This is such a shameful act that is clear for all to see. Diplomats, foreign investors, and foreign journalists have received confirmation of what this government is made of.

  9. #9 by DCLXVI on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 1:57 pm

    Not surprised with this Attorney-General’s decision.

    After all, his prosecutors still stubbornly want the ‘Sodomy 2’ trial to go on in spite of the ‘no sign of penetration on the victim’ medical reports.

    And it’s all in order to please Umno…

  10. #10 by Dap man on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 2:02 pm

    Non-Muslims can NEVER expect justice from a Muslim in the country.
    All that matters is Muslim sensitivities. See how easy it as for them to even arrest Teresa Kok under the ISA?
    See how fast they sent a warning to The Star for a simple article written by a Non-Muslim against Islam.
    The offense by these 2 Muslims against Catholics is 1000 times more serious than was written by the Star.
    In any case, Gani as never for justice. He is an UMNO AG.

  11. #11 by k1980 on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 2:11 pm

    Actually there exist 2 categories of homo sapiens in this world— the first as typified by Gani and his Al-Islam journalists; the second as exemplified by Nik Aziz and LKS.

    The first category thrives on grabbing all for themselves by trampling on the rights of their fellow men, and worse, getting away with it.

    The second category seeks to right the injustice done to their fellow men, so that all can live in harmony during their brief sojourn in this world.

    Of course, the number of homo sapiens belonging to the first group far outnumber those in the second.

    It is like in the schools— there are numerous 17-year-old schoolkids today who still cannot grasp the intricacies of understanding basic arithmetic functions such as fractions and decimals, while in that same school, we find 17-year-olds who have mastered solving calculus and probability problems.

    In short, it all depends on the type of matter that exists in our brains, whether putrefied as in the first category, or invigorated as in the second.

  12. #12 by a-malaysian on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 2:11 pm

    Najib, when are you going to take action against this AG, he is, put it in your own words “ABUSE OF POWER”. You did not hesitate to say that Lim Guan Eng is abusing his power when you did not even knows the exact details but just hearsay from your adviser.

    Pakatan Rakyat will be celebrating its 2nd anniversary as State Governments. He is my view for Penang:

    Penang, 2 Years Under Pakatan Rakyat Government

    GE 13 – Change The Federal Government No matter what, we must ensure that racist umno bn do not regain the power like they had for over the past fifty two years.

  13. #13 by artemisios on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 2:24 pm

    Agree with Dap man on this one,

    Clearly this double standard is wayyyyy to startling.

    If situations were reversed… the outcome is something i dare not describe here.

  14. #14 by artemisios on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 2:30 pm

    apologies. typo.

    “…too startling”

    oh. Maybe you can call PKFZ an “ignorant economic decision”….. or the missing jet engines a “transgression”….. i have loads of euphemisms for you…..

  15. #15 by sheriff singh on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 2:32 pm

    If the AG don’t want to prosecute “in the name of justice”, can a third party prosecute?

    Remember Lingam’s case? Karpal volunteered to prosecute.

    So can an outsider prosecute in place of the AG?

    In fact the AG should NOT prosecute if its heart is not behind it and it will only put up a half-hearted show job which it would probably lose.

    Why not let an independent party with full commitment to prosecute instead?

  16. #16 by yhsiew on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 3:13 pm

    Let the living God deal with the two Al-Islam reporters:

    1Co:11:29: For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

  17. #17 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 3:19 pm

    I recommend Ghani take a 101 course on justice from N H Chan, retired CA judge.

    What does this AG know about justice? So far it looks like he knows as much about justice as headhunters know about God.

    Ok, Ghani, no offence but every man has a Maker. Now what sense of justice do u think our Maker would show if he sees our hands soaked in injustice, huh?

  18. #18 by Bigjoe on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 3:26 pm

    Someone said that Ghani is not interested in justice. I say its worst, he is acting he is the one to decide what is justice above every one, over any law, any holy scripture, except the PM and maybe even then..

    He is feeling maybe only GOD is his match and who knows even then..

  19. #19 by dagen on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 3:39 pm

    There are some malay visitors here – no I am not talking about those sent by umno like cintanegara, kassim & etc. Occassionally, contributors here write something nasty and applied them to malays generally. Those malays did not turn hysterical because of those remarks. They did not even bother to respond most of the time. This show that they are actually matured enough to take all sorts of comments (even (-)tive ones) thrown at them as a race. They are not sensitive like umnoputras; and definitely, not like what umno imagined them to be. My observation may be broadened to encompass the larger malay population in the country. The allah issue which jib attempted to escalate with his infamous “cannot stop muslims from protesting” (something like that) line fell flat. Malays were not angered by non-muslims’ use of the word allah. Only umnoputras were. The troublemakers amongst them are all in perkasa (which they have the audacity to add the appendage “negara”).

    So what are malay sensitivities? This is really a term for umno’s sensitivities. Inside umnoputras’/perkasa’s pea-size brains, malaysia is all about umno and umno is malaysia. This is the trouble with our country. So get rid of them. Vote them out in GE13.

  20. #20 by Comrade on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 3:44 pm

    Let us respect each other’s religion
    Let God’s holy words be like a beacon
    To guide us to live in peace and harmony
    The wrong doers must repent and make apology

  21. #21 by Trojaned on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 6:48 pm

    The attorney general wants it like that. UMNO seems to purposely want uprising. Obvious to the general public, UMNO with the machineries readily available in hand, wants to create uneasiness among the people. Like they just want something terrible to happen but fortunately, the matured Malaysians regardless of race or religion, are steadfastly uphold to strong integration values.

  22. #22 by Bigjoe on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 8:12 pm

    Its all over town among Chinese community leaders that even Rosmah had input on what is going on. The Chinese community are sheething, calling MCA leaders pai-kah chai (prodigal children) which in Confucionist chinese, which many Malaysian still are, is the lowest form of life – worst than prostitutes, eunuchs, traitors.

    Najib does all these scheming but it comes out nevertheless. Its seriously pathetic that he and his wife still deluded in thinking of him as even competent much less deserving of the job that he has. People who get lucky but don’t know it deserve to have their teeth kicked in. If they continue to insist on their delusion after being kicked, when they fall, they deserved to be stepped on and runned over.. Both of them are like Marcos-Imelda at the end of their tenure. The difference is we are not going to let them leave when it all comes down. We are going to sent both of them into the lockup and take everything away…

  23. #23 by HJ Angus on Friday, 5 March 2010 - 10:06 pm

    If our Parliament operates in a proper manner, all the MPs who are concerned about justice can bring a motion against the AG but unfortunately most BN MPs have little or nothing worth saying.
    Now we allow one twisted public official to dispense his own brand of justice.
    So IGNORANCE can be used to justify crimes?

  24. #24 by Black Arrow on Saturday, 6 March 2010 - 8:02 am

    The AG’s Chambers is just a subsidiary company of BN. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

  25. #25 by lopez on Saturday, 6 March 2010 - 8:48 am

    Learn from bolehland..on how to work around the rule of law.

    MOE has top educationist of the world wif internatioal qualification and practic best standards of the world.

    COme see for your self, by appointment only, one month advance notice applies…so we can prepare for you visit and ensure you see clearly and understand our policsee.
    LAdies visitors are advise not wear short skirts, long hair to tied and covered, no heavy make up. So to make your visit more comfortable and at ease. For men please no slippers and tight pants unbutton shirts and loose shorts.

    by the way our favorite colur is green.

  26. #26 by frankyapp on Saturday, 6 March 2010 - 11:34 am

    A pack of hyenas would not hunt,hurt and kill amongst itselves. It’s a pretty sad day for the rest of malaysians to see how some of their own citizens behaved like such wild animals

  27. #27 by HJ Angus on Saturday, 6 March 2010 - 2:10 pm

    It seems that the furore over the AG’s inaction has caused the latter to request for the open apology but to me this AG is unworthy of his office and should be brought before an inquiry.
    Is there such a provision for MPs to pass such a motion?
    http://malaysiawatch4.blogspot.com/2010/03/al-islam-and-sincere-apology.html

  28. #28 by anakbaram on Saturday, 6 March 2010 - 8:03 pm

    Yes!!!!!!!!!! I agree with yhsiew. Let God deal with the two Al-Islam reporter. For the Bible in “That is why many of you are sick and weak, and several have died.” [1 Cor. 11:30] Please, please do not fool around with God the Almighty, make of heaven and earth. Unless you want to be in the eternal fire of hell.

  29. #29 by kpt99 on Saturday, 6 March 2010 - 9:03 pm

    Sabah cm said that developments are fast under BN and all rakyat are well after.Why is sabah is the still the poorest state in Malaysia ?.

  30. #30 by johnnypok on Sunday, 7 March 2010 - 7:05 am

    Sooner or later Ah Lar will send this Ah Pig to go on trial in the Court of Hell, and then we can live in peace down here, unless the government plant another devil to replace him. Then it is the end of the world for many of us.

  31. #31 by lopez on Sunday, 7 March 2010 - 2:15 pm

    some like to play god…..

    some are confused because played too much as god

    how should a god be? beats me…everything written and created by man.

    ever met anyone yet who has first hand met this fellow neither one came back from hell yet.

    But the hell in bolehland…terrorised by god players.

    funny thing all dictators somehow associates themselves as god.

    so be carefool , god can sent you to hell….irrespective satan approves or not.

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