Debunking The Lies About Article 11
The BADAI, PAS & Teras Lies
Let’s recall the lies being addressed: Mohd. Hafiz of BADAI, Salahuddin of PAS and Azmi of Teras allege that Article 11’s agenda in hosting the series of forums was to pursue the effort to establish the IFC.
If you have read the Rapporteur’s Report in full, you will have noticed that in all of over 20 pages, the IFC initiative was mentioned once. Malik Imtiaz made the reference when he mentioned the media reporting of the IFC initiative as one instance of biased reporting by the Malay media on certain issues.
At page 17, at the second last paragraph, he reportedly said :
‘For example, during the discussion of the proposed Interfaith Council, the Malay press stated that the council was anti-Islamic, anti-Constitution, that it would push an apostasy agenda, but the bill did not say that at all.’
The entire Rapporteur’s Report comprises 10,612 words. The one sentence that touched on the IFC initiative comprises 34 words.
Now examine the photographs of the demonstrators outside Cititel Hotel, Penang on 14th May, 2006 and Selesa Hotel, Johor Bahru on 22nd July, 2006. You will see that many of the banners and placards borne by the demonstrators reviled the IFC initiative. I recall that in Penang, while looking out at the demonstrators, an Article 11 colleague jokingly suggested that the demonstrators should be informed that they were probably at the wrong venue as our forum was unrelated to the IFC initiative.
Mohd Hafiz of BADAI has contended that Article 11’s hidden agenda is the establishment of the IFC, and that BADAI knows of this based on the earlier forums in PJ and Malacca. Yet at the PJ forum, only 36 words out of a 10,000+ word report makes reference to the IFC, and that too only in the context of illustrating a complaint of bias in media reporting. This must truly be a hidden agenda so well-guarded that only Mohd Hafiz knows of it!
Salahuddin of PAS has said that the Article 11 forums are to further the IFC initiative. How could such a forum further the IFC initiative when there was scarcely any reference during that forum to such an initiative?
Azmi of Teras has contended that the coalition came into being to facilitate another means to further the IFC initiative, given the PM’s stand taken in February 2005 that the IFC effort was to be put on hold for the time being. However, the Article 11 coalition came together in May 2004, well before the IFC national conference on 25 February 2005 or the PM’s announcement immediately after. Azmi’s contention cannot be right!
The Harakahdaily report of 1st June, 2006 referred to above reported that Teras, BADAI and Penang PAS youth were all involved in the protest against Article 11’s forum in Penang. From the banners and placards, the demonstrators involved were under the impression that the Article 11 forum and the IFC initiative were one and the same. Who or what gave them this impression and why?
I do not know the answer to the “who” or “what” questions, so you must draw your own conclusions from the entirety of the evidence. I briefly answered the “why” question earlier. I had promised a detailed account of the reasons for the lies directed at Article 11. This will necessitate delving first into the lies perpetrated by ACCIN with regard to the IFC initiative, to which I now turn.
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