Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been asked to demand the resignation of his chief of staff Jeff Ooi, over an outburst that Jemaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) is an extremist group.

NONE A coalition representing 27 Muslim organisations attempted to hand over a memorandum on this today at the chief minister’s office, but ran into a wall in the form of Lim’s political secretary Ng Wei Aik.

There was a brief stand-off as the group insisted on meeting Lim, while Ng was equally adamant that they should hand the document to him instead. When they refused to do so, he retailiated by calling for security personnel to escort them out of the office.

NONE Eventually, the delegation had to make do with submitting the memorandum to Deputy Chief Minister Mansor Othman. Apart from Ooi’s resignation, they also want an apology from him.

Outside the state government office complex, some 300 members of the organisations waited in a show of support for their representatives.

The delegation expressed shock over Ooi’s remark, saying this reveals that his“ ignorance of the Muslim community”.

A leader, Mohamad Hafiz, said: “It is natural for an Islamic organisation to wish for the implementation of Islamic teaching, so Ooi should be careful about what he says in a multiracial society.”

JIM Penang member Roslan Hashim said Ooi could have been misled by the western media, by equating Islam with terrorism.

"Since Islam supports good governance, it is disappointing that Ooi - who advocates justice and fairness - should label the implementation of Islam as 'extreme'," he said.

At a press conference later, Ng claimed that Lim had already distanced the Penang government from Ooi's comments.

“Although the government is not responsible for this, we still sent (Mansor) to receive the memorandum. We are not arrogant, but (they must) respect our way of handling things.”

Cause of verbal war

Ooi, the DAP parliamentarian for Jelutong, had recently engaged in verbal war with Penang municipal councillor Mohd Razali Abdullah over alleged delays in making a decision on certain development applications.

penang government lodge report against azhar ibrahim 090908 jeff ooi According to a report in Star , Ooi lashed out at two PKR municipal councillors - one of whom was Mohd Razali - calling one a “mad man” and the other a ponteng (truant) councillor.

Mohd Razali, an engineer, retorted that Ooi had no authority to intervene. Ooi hit the roof, referring to Mohd Razali - a member of JIM - as a “religious extremist” .

Going a step further, Ooi made a printout of literature from JIM’s websitel, which states that the organisation’s mission statement is to develop Malaysia into a country which fully adopts Syariah law by 2020.

He claimed that the state had set a dangerous precedent by allowing an “extremist religious activist” to infiltrate the local government system, and urged Lim and state exco Chow Kon Yeow (handling local government affairs) to deal with the matter.

amnesty international 2007 report launch 230507 saari sungib JIM was formed in 1990 by then Hulu Kelang PAS assemblyperson Saari Sungib (left) . Many of its members are students based abroad and professionals.

The group has played a prominent role in the reformasi and human rights movement in recent years.

PKR’s Fuziah Salleh was the first head of Wanita JIM, while the deputy chairperson is Syed Ibrahim Syed Nood who also heads the Abolish ISA Movement.