Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has questioned the logic of the DAP-Christian state conspiracy now that a Muslim has been found to have attended the controversial meeting with a group of pastors.
He said the accusations against Jeff Ooi and pastors were baseless as it was illogical that the Jelutong MP, who is a Buddhist, would want to install a Christian prime minister or declare a Christian state.
Lim stressed that it simply "does not make sense" that the group would want to declare their desire to set up a Christian state in front of a Muslim.
"Do you mean to say the pastors lied. This is going overboard. You can mistrust Ooi - but he is a Buddhist, why would he want a Christian state?" asked Lim, at a press conference in Penang.
"We are not talking only about one pastor but several including those from many Christian organisations and denominations, to say they had lied is a sensitive issue," he added.
"It appears that Utusan is trying to cover up its lies. The more lies one makes, the more one has to cover by creating more lies," he said.
No decision till air cleared
Yesterday, Mohamed Razali Abdul Rahman, 42, lodged the report at the George Town police station to help police in their investigations.
According to TV3's Buletin Utama, he is a member of DAP's Jelutong branch and was present at the thanksgiving function, where the alleged conspiracy was hatched, at a hotel in Jalan Macalister.
Lim, however, said he was aware that the attack against the DAP was clear but reiterated that the party was consistently against a theoratic state. On whether the DAP would initiate action against Mohamed Razali, Lim said he is waiting for the matter to be clarified. He added that the party finds it difficult to trust Utusan and would rather speak to Mohamed Razali before arriving at a conclusion.
He said the matter would be left to Ooi to check what Mohamed Razali had said in his police report lodged yesterday. Then he cautioned about placing too much trust in a person who has jumped from Barisan Nasional to the DAP.
"We accept that people can change their stand suddenly. But no matter how one changes, once cannot turn black into white or white into black," he said. "You cannot change facts or the truth," he quipped.
Meanwhile, a Penang Municipal councilor Ong Ah Teong desribed the meeting with pastors on May 6 as a 'normal dinner'.
According to Ooi earlier, the dinner in which the alleged pledge was supposed to have been taken was part of a anti-corruption conference attended by some 50 participants.
The event, called the Unashamedly Ethical Conference, discussed the role of Christians in the fight against corruption, with Transparency International Malaysia president Paul Low also in attendance.
Serious issue, but can still laugh
Ong, too, laughed at the illogic of accusing the group of pledging for a Christian state when believers of other faiths had been invited. He said that other than Mohamed Razali, an Indian Muslim, a Sikh MPPP councilor had been there too, including himself, a non-Christian.
Ong then told reporters that Mohamed Razali was a former Umno youth member in Taman Nunsantara in Jelutong, before 2008. He joined the DAP as an ordinary member of the Bukit Dumbar branch at the end of 2009, and was appointed Ooi's publicity secretary later.
"When Ooi made the police report, Mohammed Razali was there too, condemning Utusan, showing his thumbs down, for the lies in Utusan," he said. "So when he made an unusual turn-about yesterday, we suspected that something amiss," he added.
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