IGP Fuzi, in a statement just made public and commenting on court proceedings against persons accused of insulting religion “advised” the public not to engage in such activities.

It is legitimate to ask why this particular provision of the Code should still be extant. Its origin lies in the Indian Penal Code, which was adopted wholesale into colonial Malaya, presumably to a avoid the work and trouble that would have been involved in drafting a new Code more appropriate to the country. That is in the past but its side effects are still very much with us today and it is both legitimate and necessary to ask why legislation needed to keep Hindus and Mohammedans from insulting each other’s religious beliefs, so leading to riots etc, should still be in force in Malaysia today.

It is also reasonable to enquire why a person without any criminal record of any kind should be jailed for eleven years for breaching this outdated section of the Code? Mega crook Najib is unlikely to get such a draconian sentence for his far greater crimes so why this excessive punishment where a fine would have been more appropriate?

It would take the average Malaysian to be blind, deaf and a hermit for him not to have been aware of the heated, public, outbursts by PAS leaders attacking those who do not profess Islam. Kafirs etc.  When will the ,Malay, IGP and his subordinates notice these offences? If sentencing were to be on the same scale those PAS spokesmen would have to live to be well over a hundred to complete their punishment.