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.