Scrap Penang mosque election, says Umno

Penang Umno wants the Penang Islamic Council (MAIPP) to scrap the coming mosque election so that ‘unity’ among the Muslims can be preserved.

State Umno liaison chief Zainal Abidin Osman said the controversy resulting from MAIPP’s introduction of a new system of mosque election has caused anxiety among the community.

Zainal Abidin (right) added that the new development, introduced on June 6, had even caused some quarters to be in a dilemma when asked to cast their votes.

According to the former Nibong Tebal MP, the mosque has a tradition which emphasises on consensus, where decisions on congregation leaders were discussed among the members.

“This helps to maintain unity among the members of the mosque,” he said when asked after a state Barisan Nasional meeting in Penang.

Penang state exco member on religious affairs Abdul Malik Abul Kassim, however, said that MAIPP will continue to hold the election on Saturday.

The Batu Maung assemblyperson said that the new system has not contravened any law as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was still the final decision-maker on who sits on the mosque committees.

He added that the election had received a positive response from the community, where 193 out of 200 mosques have submitted their name lists to MAIPP when nomination closed last Tuesday.

The controversy over the mosque election erupted after Umno-owned Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia reported on its front page last Monday that the DAP had interfered in MAIPP, and influenced its decisions over the issue, which the latter had denied.

Zainal Abidin questioned why the list of candidates, which was supposed to be distributed to the mosques prior to the election date, were yet to be publicised.

‘No electoral roll exists’

And since no electoral roll existed, it would be difficult to identify who would be eligible to vote, he said.

“Some people would probably vote twice in a situation like this,” he added.

Meanwhile, Umno is also hoping that the king instructs MAIPP to withhold the election.

Zainal Abidin said there were many issues related to the election which must be addressed first, for example, it must be ascertained whether the new system complied with existing rules and regulations.

“We hope the Agong will instruct the election to be postponed or cancelled as this would avoid a split in the community,” he said.

“A mosque is a place of worship, it is not for someone to show his power and influence,” he quipped.

The former parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Ministry also suggested that certain quarters wanted to see a split in the Muslim community, saying he was uncertain if other faiths conducted elections for members to choose their leaders.

He urged the DAP not to mix politics and religion while holding the helm of the state government leadership.

He reiterated that consensus among the members was still the best method in choosing members of the committee.

“This way, everyone would be included, so that the committee would always comprise people from different political parties...we may have an imam from PAS, it is okay,” he said.

“There are also a few surau near each mosque and each one would have a representative in the mosque committee,” he added.

“But if we conduct an election, we would never know the results... there may be surau which would not be represented at all, that is why democracy may not be fair for certain people,” he stressed.