PETALING JAYA, Aug 14 — The four-day remand of a resort manager accused of allowing Buddhists to use a surau was excessive, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and several lawyers have said, noting it came at a time when the country is gripped with fear over the recent crime spate.
The lawyers said the police should be focusing their efforts on fighting crime instead of hunting down the resort owner so quickly over allegations that he had violated Muslim sensitivities.
Ambiga, a prominent civil rights activist and former Bar Council president, said she was “deeply troubled” by the authorities’ treatment of the resort owner, who was hauled in for allegedly “injuring or defiling” a place of worship.
“What I can say is that I am horrified at the way this man is being treated. Why the remand for four days? Especially when there are criminals out there getting away with murder.
“I truly despair at what we have become and the lack of humanity that is being shown in such cases,” the prominent lawyer told The Malay Mail Online in a text message.
Another senior lawyer, Joy Appukuttan, questioned the need to remand the man in the first place, suggesting that the police may have acted in an “overzealous” manner in the controversial incident which reportedly took place in Johor last week.
“Is there a need to be so excessive in the use of power?” the lawyer with 33 years of legal experience said.
Joy pointed out that the resort owner was not a “hard-core criminal” and could be co-operative in investigations, adding later that there are “more hard-core criminals out on the streets needing immediate detention”.
“There is more happening in the streets today, hard-core violence is taking place. Our police resources should be doubled on that,” he said.
His comment comes as a recent spate of shootings in the country made headlines and reportedly sparked fears about the public’s safety.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had last weekend acknowledged in a published interview that despite the dip in the overall crime statistics, the number of index crime cases — which include violent crimes — were on the rise.
When contacted, civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan similarly said the police’s move to hold the resort owner for four days was “too excessive”.
“Why did the magistrate allow four days of remand? It’s too excessive,” he said.
He explained that the police have to prove why they need to hold an individual for additional days when applying for remand orders, adding that magistrates should only approve such orders based on the necessity of the situation.
“In this case, what you need to get from the person is get his statement and ask him questions, would it take four days? No,” he said, later adding that the remand period was “too long”.
He said that the evidence in this case would be the surau and the video, pointing out that they would both remain unaltered during the course of investigations.
“It’s all there, you don’t need to detain the person for four days in order to study the video and go to the site,” he said, noting that an in-depth study of the surau had reportedly been made yesterday.
Syahredzan said that while Malaysians were worried about their safety, the public’s perception was that the police are “more interested in catching dog trainers and resort owners”.
He added that the government did not appear to be giving the same priority to other crimes.
Syahredzan was alluding to the case of Muslim dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof who was recently arrested and probed under the Sedition Act over a three-year-old video featuring her and her three pet dogs.
The arrest took place just days after a controversial blogger pair, Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee, were charged with sedition over a Ramadan greeting on Facebook featuring a pork dish.
The couple, otherwise known as “Alvivi”, were denied bail after they were charged in court under three laws, but were subsequently released.
On Monday, the resort owner was arrested after police reports were lodged over the incident that purportedly happened in the surau within the Johor resort’s grounds last week.
The 45-year-old man with a permanent resident status in Malaysia is being probed under section 295 of the Penal Code, which comes under the heading of “injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class”.
His arrest also comes after several media reports yesterday highlighted the incident, with video recordings on YouTube showing an external shot of a small building and a close-up of what appears to be a sign in Arabic script over a doorway.
The video then shows what appears to be a prayer session inside the building by a dozen white-clad people led by a monk in red and saffron.
In a Monday report, Berita Harian quoted the resort owner as saying he did not expect the offer to lead to the controversy now.
“I do not think the action of giving permission to believers of other religions to use the surau is wrong. This is because they only wanted to use the surau for meditation.
“I have no intention of hurting anyone’s feelings. My intention is to show that Islam is universal and tolerant,” said the Singapore-born Muslim.
Yesterday, the Buddhist Maha Vihara — a group representing Malaysian Buddhists — apologised over the prayer session in the surau.
In a brief statement, Chief High Priest of Malaysia Datuk K. Srï Dhammaratana expressed his group’s regret while urging followers of the religion to be mindful of others in their worship.
“We would like to apologise to our Muslim brothers and sisters for the actions of a certain Buddhist group from Singapore in having their meditation session at the surau of a resort in Kota Tinggi.
“I advise Buddhists in Malaysia and Singapore to respect the religious sensitivities of other religionists while carrying out our own religious obligations and responsibilities,” Dhammaratana said.
