The Malaysian Insight

THERE is an attempt to silence critics of Zakir Naik, said Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy, minutes after he was questioned by police for his alleged links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Ramasamy said the issue of supporting the LTTE never arose before the Zakir Naik issue. The deputy chief minister has always been a vocal critic of the controversial Islamic preacher.

He said his role in Sri Lanka as a peace moderator has now been misinterpreted as supporting the LTTE.  

“I believe these claims (linking me to LTTE) are to stop me from criticising Zakir. Personally, I have nothing against the preacher.

“But don’t slander the non-Muslims, don’t provoke us and don’t question our loyalty.

“I was born here, I received my education here, I got married here and I will die here,” Ramasamy told reporters after having his statement taken by the police in Bukit Aman today.

On his role in the peace process in Sri Lanka’s civil war, Ramasamy said he was involved in the Constitutional Affairs Committee, formed by Norway.

“I was there in 2003 with six other members and I was selected due to my academic expertise in political science.

“My job there was the same as when I was with Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), helping the Muslims in Mindanao. Why wasn’t I associated with GAM and only with LTTE?”

When he assisted the Acehnese people – who were 99% Muslim – he said no one made him out to be a supporter of GAM.

“Why do they make all sorts of slander, saying I am with LTTE? I have nothing to do with the organisation. Why don’t they mention the fact that I had helped the Acehnese Muslims and the Mindanao people?”

Ramasamy arrived in Bukit Aman at 9.50am to have his statement recorded over articles he wrote that were published online. He was questioned for more than three hours.

The articles were entitled “New government but the same old police force”, which was published on the Malaysia Gazette portal on September 17, and “Who am I, peacemaker or terrorist?”, which was published on Malaysiakini on September 22.

“Aside from that, the police also showed two video clips from 2010, one when I spoke in Kuala Lumpur, welcoming Seeman, a politician from the Naam Tamilar Katchi party (from Tamil Nadu, India).

“The other video clip was from my speech in Chennai, India, after the Sri Lankan civil war, which I have already lodged a police report two weeks ago,” he added.

The Sri Lankan civil war ended with the surrender of LTTE in 2009.

Ramasamy said he is ready to be investigated by the police.

“My true role is to be a people’s representative, with multi-ethnic supporters. I strongly hold to the belief that there needs to be peace among the races and that we do not need Zakir Naik to be here to inflame things. I am firm on this belief,” he said.

Last week, Zakir filed a defamation suit at the Petaling Jaya High Court against Ramasamy, seeking damages and a ban on the DAP lawmaker from publishing or distributing reports in any medium.

He said Ramasamy had ridiculed him, depicted him as a person with bad character and a threat to Malaysia’s security.

Zakir said he was described by Ramasamy as “satan” in a Facebook post two years ago, and was defamed in an article “Is Malaysia harbouring alleged fugitive Zakir Naik?” published on news portal Free Malaysia Today in 2017.

He also said Ramasamy had on August 11 twisted his speech in Kota Baru, Kelantan to say that he had questioned the loyalty of Malaysian Hindus.

A total of 515 police reports have been lodged over Zakir’s speech in Kota Baru.

In that speech, Zakir had said Indians in Malaysia were more supportive of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi than Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He also allegedly described Malaysia’s Chinese as “guests” in the country, and said they should be sent back to China before he could be deported. – October 21, 2019.