PM: Nik Aziz has gone overboard with remarks

2009/12/01

Fauziah Ismail reporting from Port Of Spain (Trinidad & Tobago)

DATUK Seri Najib Razak said he could not understand why Pas spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat made the ill-intended prayer against him over oil royalty for Kelantan. The prime minister, here for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), said the government had been giving Kelantan wang ehsan although the state is controlled by the opposition.

"Whether it is called wang ehsan or royalty, we have been giving it to the state.

"In fact, under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, we had allocated RM7 billion for the state although it is opposition-controlled.

"How can they say we are not fair?" he said when asked by the Malaysian media about the matter at a press conference at the end of his working trip here.

Najib and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, left for Kuala Lumpur at 3.30am yesterday.

Najib said Nik Aziz had gone overboard with his statement and that it was not Islamic in nature.

Nik Aziz, who is also Kelantan menteri besar, had on Friday said that he prayed for Najib to change his mind over oil royalty, which he said Kelantan deserved, failing which he would pray for the destruction of the future of Najib and Umno.

In Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin described such prayers, seeking divine help to destroy the future of the prime minister and Umno, as against the teachings of Islam.

He said such a stand should not have been made by a person said to be a respected religious leader.

"His statement does not reflect that of a religious person who is held in high esteem for his piety.

"I cannot advise him as he is more knowledgeable than me (in religious matters), but peddling religion for political interests is something I cannot fathom," Muhyiddin told reporters after opening the Local Authorities Convention 2009 and the biennial conference of the Amalgamated National Union of Local Authority Employees (Anulae).

The Umno deputy president said he had never heard of any religious teachings that allowed its followers to pray for the destruction of others, more so against a leader of the same faith and race.