The blogger Azmi Awang (Pic from his blog)

A year after posting a defamatory article, a blogger who claimed Islam was trampled on in Johor is still free of any charges.

Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching in her statement today demanded that Attorney General Abdul Ghani Patail act against blogger called “Azmi Awang Klana Jaya” who penned an article titled “DAP makin kuat di Johor, Islam makin dipijak: Guru Mualaf dipaksa buka tudung” (DAP is growing stronger in Johor, Islam is being stepped on: Islamic Convert teacher forced to remove headscarf).

The blogger had posted an article on a Muslim teacher in a vernacular school who was forced to remove her headscarf . From the posting’s title, the blogger alluded to the DAP presence being stronger in Johor as a cause for the incident.

Teo said this amounted to defamation and criticised the government for failing to act despite a report lodged by the DAP against Azmi Awang.

Dyana Sofya, political secretary of Lim Kit Siang had reported the incident to the police on January 19, 2014 urging that the case be investigated under Section 499 of the Penal Code for defamation.

In the report, she stated that the posting was seditious, defamatory and it tried to turn Muslims against the DAP.

Teo said that the incident was settled with school authorities including its administrator Pang Ah Ngang and headmistress, Chiew Swee Tuan, who both apologised in public to the teacher, who is a Chinese-Muslim convert.

Last year, the federal government had charged and investigated many from the opposition camp including DAP leaders for allegedly making seditious statements or remarks. The government was quick to act on Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, following her Chinese New Year video, ‘Onederful Malaysia 2014‘ where she had poked fun at the government. However, opposition leaders maintain that there was nothing seditious in the video, and that the government was using the Sedition Act merely to silence dissent.

However, the Attorney General appeared not to act against government-friendly individuals such as the blogger. Teo said that he had taken advantage of the situation to defame the DAP, whose presence in Johor is the strongest of all the opposition parties.

“Don’t pilih kasih (be biased) Abdul Ghani Patail, act swiftly against the seditious blogger,” said Teo.

Apart from Azmi Awang, Teo also named Perkasa President Ibrahim Ali and Wanita UMNO Baling Chief Mashitah Ibrahim amongst others who have made seditious remarks but have not had action taken against them.

Ibrahim had on January 19, 2013 called for the burning of Christian bibles containing the word Allah or other Arabic religious words, which were forbidden to non-Muslims. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of law Nancy Shukri had defended Ibrahim’s actions, saying that it was done to defend Islam.

Mashitah, during the UMNO General Assembly in November last year blamed the Chinese community in Kedah for allegedly burning the Quran page by page during a ritual. This was despite a statement by Kedah MB Mukhriz Mahathir made prior to her speech where he clarified that a mentally unstable Malay man had folded and not burnt the Muslim holy book.

Teo, who had questioned Home Minister Zahid Hamidi pertaining the matter, was given a written reply saying that investigations were concluded on January 14 2014. However the report was only made five days after the given date.

“How could the investigations be concluded as early as January 14, 2014 when reports were only made on January 19 2014?”

“This means that investigations had taken place even before the report was made!” she said.

She added Azmy Awang being ‘on the loose’ proves that the government is practicing double standards with regards to the law.

-The Rocket