KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — PKR vice-president Darell Leiking denied today criticising the Sultan of Selangor in his recent Facebook post as alleged and demanded his detractors stop perpetuating that he did.
The Penampang MP further demanded his detractors, which he said included Selangor Umno chief Tan Sri Noh Omar and Sungai Besar assemblyman Budiman Mohd Zohdi, apologise to Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah for using the monarch’s name for their own political benefit.
“There was never any reference at all to the Sultan of Selangor as we all know the Sultan is above politics,” Leiking said in a statement this evening.
“Datuk Noh Omar and all those who have been twisting and harping on my posting should in fact apologise to the Sultan of Selangor for dragging the Sultan into their political agendas and for abusing the Sultan’s name in justifying their attacks over my posting,” he added.
Earlier today, Noh had challenged PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and her deputy and Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azmin Ali to discipline Leiking for allegedly insulting Islam and the Selangor sultan as the state head of the religion in his July 7 Facebook post.
Noh who is also an Umno minister claimed that Leiking’s questions about the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) Hari Raya sermon on the same day was “the same as questioning the sultan”.
A similar challenge was made by Budiman yesterday.
In his Facebook entry, Leiking had actually urged Azmin to clarify if he agreed with Jais’s sermon which lauded the tabling of the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act Amendment Bill 2016 in Parliament, pointing out that Sabah agreed to form Malaysia on the basis the federation remain secular.
Detractors appeared to take issue with Leiking’s concluding remark: “It is beginning to look like the extremists are running the State of Selangor”.
Last Friday, Jais director Datuk Haris Kasim and five non-governmental organisations filed police complaints against the non-Muslim Sabah PKR vice-president.
