DAP rep denies representing Malay community in filing Jill Ireland affidavit

IPOH: DAP’s Tebing Tinggi assemblyman Dr Abdul Aziz Bari says he was not representing the Malay community when he filed an affidavit in the Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill case as accused by PAS.

Abdul Aziz, a constitutional law expert, said the accusation by PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan was not accurate.

He said the lawyer representing Jill had requested for his affidavit, and that the affidavit he made was in line with constitutional rights.

“I have no idea why Takiyuddin is targeting me because the High Court is the one that made the decision, not me. I and the other two people mentioned have merely been made out to be the black sheep by him. (Takiyuddin),” he said in a press conference on the sidelines of the state assembly sitting on Thursday (May 25).

Takiyuddin recently said at a press conference in Parliament that Abdul Aziz was supposedly representing the Malay community when he filed an affidavit in the case.

Takiyuddin had also said that DAP’s Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan and Election Commission deputy director Azmi Sharom had also filed similar affidavits to support the case.

He had said that many things could be questioned in the affidavits, as all three individuals who filed it were supporting the Jill Ireland application superseded the state Islamic religious council.

On May 15, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim confirmed that the government had withdrawn its appeal against the 2021 High Court ruling in favour of Sarawakian native Jill Ireland.

Abdul Aziz said his view in the case was in the context of the right of the freedom of religion.

“I was made to understand that the Bible with the use of the word “Allah” confiscated by the government was for personal use, and for the use of Christians in Sarawak, and it was not for propagating Christianity,” he said.

“According to the Constitution, we cannot restrain someone from practising their religion. It is their wish on how they want to address their God, who are we to tell them how to call their God,” added Abdul Aziz.