By Debra Chong
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 06, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Selangor DAP chief Teresa Kok warned political ally PAS to stop pushing for all Pakatan Rakyat (PR) states to adopt Kelantan’s controversial gaming ban for fear of losing non-Muslim votes in the coming general election.
“If PAS pushes this further, it’s not going to help them win more Malay votes and it might cost them non-Malay votes,” she told The Malaysian Insider today.
Kok was weighing in behind DAP national chairman Karpal Singh who had yesterday criticised the Kelantan government for enforcing a state law which, he said, had denied the rights of its non-Muslim citizens.
Earlier today, PAS secretary-general, Datuk Mustafa Ali defended the ban, saying the Islamist state’s anti-gambling policy was for the well-being of all communities, not just Muslims.
Kok said while she broadly agreed with Mustafa that gambling was socially unhealthy, she stressed that it did not mean the rights of the non-Muslims should be compromised, which Kelantan appeared to be doing.
Echoing Karpal, Kok, who is a Selangor executive councillor and holds the investment, industry and trade portfolio in the country’s most developed state, suggested it was not prudent for the PR leadership to enforce such a sweeping policy.
“Last time, all Pakatan states came out in one voice to say we do not agree to have gambling in this country,” she said.
Kok was referring to opposition pact’s united stand denouncing the Cabinet for awarding a sports betting licence to a company linked to tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, which became a hot topic during the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election last year.
But she stressed that the DAP did not agree with PAS this time to suddenly clamp down on all forms of betting, including the ones legalised under federal law.
She noted the growing unhappiness among the minority non-Muslim community in PAS-ruled Kelantan after state enforcers raided several shops in Kota Baru selling Big Sweep lottery tickets and fined its owners despite it being legal under federal laws.
Gambling is considered a haram activity and punishable under Muslim law.
PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan sparked the debate with the secular DAP when he suggested that all PR states emulate Kelantan and ban all forms of gaming activities.
Other DAP leaders have also stepped forward to reject Nasrudin’s idea.
Lim Kit Siang, the secular party’s whip in Parliament, maintained PAS’s tough stand on betting was not part of the pact’s common policy and the three remaining PR states did not have to follow suit.
“The party’s position is that it is not common PR policy. What Karpal says reflects the party’s stand,” he told The Malaysian Insider today.
His son and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng joined in the fray on the prickly subject that could affect the warming political ties between the two opposition parties.
“Penang does not agree with PAS Youth chief. He speaks not for us. The existing ones in Penang remain untouched. Only expansion of new forms of gambling like sports betting not allowed,” Guan Eng said in a text message to The Malaysian Insider today.
Guan Eng, who is also the DAP’s secretary-general, did not elaborate when asked why his party was dead set against the PAS proposal.
#1 by yhsiew on Monday, 7 March 2011 - 8:34 pm
I can never understand why PAS likes to make a big fuss on trivial issues such as gambling and drinking instead of focusing on bigger issues like how to win the hearts and minds of felda settlers and how to penetrate into BN strongholds. If these urgent issues are not solved, they will affect PR’s survival in the next GE.
PAS should be aware that even if it can stop all gambling and drinking throughout Malaysia, it still will not be able to hold federal power unless it finds solutions to the more urgent issues.
#2 by pulau_sibu on Monday, 7 March 2011 - 10:00 pm
DAP should just do something that is right. Gambling is bad, so it should be banned. Don’t fight for gambling just because it may give you votes from some of the rotten Chinese. Please teach Chinese to restraint themselves from gambling.
In Sarawak, we know that Ibans drink and gamble a lot. We know that it is creating problem for themselves. We don’t encourage that. Bad culture like that of Chinese should not be promoted.
#3 by raven77 on Monday, 7 March 2011 - 10:50 pm
PAS fellas just threw away both elections….
PKR and DAP have to really think hard if Malaysia will at all be governable with these guys in tow….I rather wait another 5 years, strengthen the Malay base and forego PAS rather then scurry to take power and then fall flat on our faces like what Anwar faced just after the GE….
Stick to principles ….it can take you a long way…
#4 by tak tahan on Monday, 7 March 2011 - 11:41 pm
Hallo PAS,democracy kan?Sudah 54 tahun duduk sama satu negara tak kan tak tau?Sakit kepala gua kalau mau cerita lanjut lagi nor?Jangan lah campur aduk politic dengan agama.Nanti gua cerita tak habis habis kasi sama you.
#5 by boh-liao on Monday, 7 March 2011 - 11:54 pm
Sadly it’s true, 3 strange bed fellows, even after 3 yrs of cohabitation
#6 by baochingtian on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 12:31 am
Different parties with different background bound to have different views and ideologies. No big deals. But is such an issue a priority among the PR now? Priority is to take on Putrajaya! Why must u PR buggers give public statements to desperately defend your individual stand on such an issue and appeared disunited in the eyes of commoners? There r issues which r applicable in certain states but not others, so why push for standardisation? Leave it to the state leaders what’s best for their people, can u not? U r scaring us, the supporters for PR!
#7 by ablastine on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 12:50 am
This group of PAS fellas headed by this Nasrudin chap really are completely devoid of ideas as to why they did so badly in the last few by- elections. If they continue the way they are behaving now, the rakyat will just find them a pest rather than any veritable politician that deserve their vote.
Can’t they think of something helpful to say or do rather than going around to force people to live according to their brand of morality. This is a free country and democratic country. You don’t go around telling people what to wear, what to worship, what to do with their leisure time and certainly not how to spend their valentine day. Which young voter irrespective of race will really want their lives to be controlled by these group of half witted people. If they hate what they are doing, how do we expect them to vote for them.
So DAP, while it is good to be in a coalition, you must never let some of these PAS elements dictate terms that are detrimental to Pakatan. What they are doing now is destroying Pakatan credibility and imposing stupid and unnecessary rules on voters lives is of course a sure way to loose the election.
#8 by dawsheng on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 1:27 am
Kok said while she broadly agreed with Mustafa that gambling was socially unhealthy, she stressed that it did not mean the rights of the non-Muslims should be compromised, which Kelantan appeared to be doing. – DC/TMI
What rights? The rights to be socially unhealthy? What kind of right is that? Anyway, I am against institutionalized gambling that benefited only cronies of BN.
#9 by monsterball on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 2:12 am
To me…PAS is split over the methods to win Muslim voters against UMNO B.
Teresa is asking PAS stand and that is difficult for PAS where leaders like Nik and Haji Awang may sit seemly united….which infact are not.
Husam sits in the middle for selfish reasons.
#10 by boh-liao on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 3:07 am
308, 308 – Tsunami, still got aah? Has it become 2 sinkhole, quicksand?
NR n RM’s stars on d rise, very ong lah; MCA n Gerakan, hum yee fan san loh, ho yeh
#11 by tak tahan on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 3:52 am
Everybody should be free to choose what he/she likes to do as long nobody is harmed by the effect.Banning something according to your own credo doesn’t help to sustain your ideal social perception among your fellow countryman.It’s partly depends on your brought up and almost on your developed personality to decide your own doing..It’s senseless to bind someone lawfully with one religiously belief onto another one even of his own kind to do or not do accordingly.Did god come down to tell or twitter them from above the sky to decide the course of our life?If not,get out of my way.
#12 by undertaker888 on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 7:46 am
come to think of it, the 4D, big sweep, belongs to vincent tan right? which in turn using the money for BN cohorts and umno goons to buy elections.
or there are moles in PAS that everytime there are by elections, they would completely destroy their chances of winning by implementing rules which do not go well with the nons, or trying to attract the non nons. well, in both cases it didn’t work.
I can say is the days and ways of the Taliban is over. Look at middle east who are fighting for freedom and democracy. they didn’t fight for Osama or the taliban type government. as a matter of fact the don’t even want it. So PAS, please look at the future, not 1000BC ago like you see in the movies.
#13 by undertaker888 on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 7:56 am
NAH!!! Moderate this. go work for ISA or rais instead of moderation just for the sake of moderation.
#14 by undertaker888 on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 8:03 am
if they moderate us in a simple blog like this, when DAP is in power, will they also moderate the whole population? come to think of it better vote for the third force.
#15 by Thor on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 8:13 am
Why make a fuss during each by-election where UmnoBn will have a chance to create some issue.
Could it be that there’s someone inside Pas who’s trying to sabotage his very own party?
Traitors here, traitors there, moles here, moles there, frogs here and frogs there.
Come on PR!, please get rid all these!
Even if we rakyat can help you access Putrajaya, you won’t be able to get in just because of all these “pest” inside your party.
Get tough and be serious!!!
#16 by k1980 on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 8:54 am
Mamak says—“Some claim that my father was Malayalee and was fluent in both Tamil and Malayalam. Some have even written that he was a Hindu who converted to Islam to marry my mother. Others say they have seen documents clearly stating my ethnicity.”
Lee Ah Kau, born in Malaya, can now claim to be a MalayaLEE, and also a mamak, and bumi status!
#17 by Loh on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 9:40 am
///KUALA LUMPUR: Sungai Buloh Hospital’s head of pathology Dr Shahidan Noor told the Commission of Inquiry into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock that he had erred in stating there were bruises on the political aide’s neck.
Dr Shahidan had said in his report that the marks found on Teoh’s neck appeared to be bruises, after conducting the second post-mortem on the political aide’s remains in Nov 2009.
Dr Shahidan retracted his opinion on Friday and said he would not have given such an opinion if he had been privy to pictures of Teoh’s neck area taken by University Malaya Medical Centre pathologist Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar.
Dr Prashant, who conducted the first post-mortem on Teoh with Klang Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital forensic department head Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim on July 17, 2009 had taken pictures of the neck area before and after the autopsy.
“To err is human,” said Dr Shahidan.
“There were marks on Teoh’s neck before the first post-mortem.These marks became more pronounced after the post-mortem was completed.
“But now (after seeing Dr Pra-shant’s pictures), I don’t think it was a bruise.”
The pictures were given to the Commission by Dr Prashant when he testified last week.
According to Dr Shahidan, Dr Prashant’s pictures clearly show that the marks on Teoh’s neck were post-mortem staining due to blood seepage into the muscles.
….
He also said Dr Prashant and Dr Khairul Azman may have overlooked the importance of the red marks on the neck and focused on other things when they had conducted the first post-mortem.
…..///—http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/8/courts/8210700&sec=courts
Dr Shahidan said that to err is human. He erred in telling the truth.
Dr Shahidan confirmed that there were red marks on the neck of TBH, but the two pathologists who performed the first autopsy chose not to refer to them, but they did take photograph, both before and after the post-mortem. Why did they take picture on this particular spot if it was not important? Why had they not referred to the red marks in the first pos-mortem report. Obviously, they were looking for explanation why TBH was conscious till the end rather than explaining why TBH was conscious despite the red marks.
If what was normal under the red spot, then blood could not have seeped in. Otherwise the whole body would have blood seeped out to the surface of the skin. The fact that there were marks before the first pos-mortem, and these marks became more pronounced after the first post -mortem showed that the two pathologists chose to ignore the fact. Surely if it was normal for blood seepage to an ordinary uninjured muscle, then the same marks would appear elsewhere and became more pronounced after the first pos-mortem. But no such evidence was seen at the second pos-mortem. Whether Dr Shaidan wants to call it bruise or by any other name, the fact was the muscle under the red marks had subjected to external force, by another person alive. One can only conclude that TBH suffered pre-fall injuries.
#18 by monsterball on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 10:06 am
hi undertaker888…the third force are the voters.
I am so frustrated with the moderator too.
Stay cool….try your best to change words and give hints.
We are all trained to be future good sheeeeet diplomats…under new Govt…hahahahahahaha
#19 by undertaker888 on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - 12:32 pm
problem is, the thing i wrote does not contain any foul words or anything, but also got moderated. what joke is this? is the moderator witch hunting?
#20 by negarawan on Wednesday, 9 March 2011 - 8:56 am
Wow, just a simple comment and already under moderation? Is this the DAP way? This is worse than BN and certainly augers badly for PR in the coming GE!!