Kampung Tunku rep slammed for accusing BN of seeking cheap publicity

Datuk Sulaiman Abdul Razak (BN-Permatang) said Lau Weng San (DAP-Kampung Tunku) did not qualify to meddle in the affairs of the syariah judicial institution when in fact, the proposed motion brought by the BN assemblymen was aimed at uplifting the position of the Syariah Court.

"He (Lau) doesn't need to relate the motion that we had submitted to the State Legislative Assembly on Oct 13 as wanting to seek cheap publicity as our effort is to empower the Syariah Court so as to be at par with the Civil Court.

"We proposed the motion because although some amendments were made to the Islamic Religious Administration Enactment 2003 on April 7 this year, we feel that there is still room for improvement," he told reporters at the State Assembly building lobby, here, today.

Sulaiman said the amendments made touched on matters such as the interpretation of terms, increasing the powers and membership of the Selangor Islamic Religious Council, appointment of the syariah chief judge, syariah high court judges and registrar, and increasing the jurisdiction of those presiding over the syariah lower court cases and judicial reviews.

He said following this, the BN elected representatives felt that the remuneration and emolument of syariah judges, infrastructure and settling of backlog cases should be reviewed to further strengthen the Islamic institution.

Yesterday, Lau was quoted by a news portal as saying that the state BN assemblymen were not sincere in their effort and even questioned Sulaiman's action when he did not take part in the debate on the Islamic Religious Administration Enactment on April 7, 2015.

Recently, Sulaiman expressed regret when the proposed motion to empower the Syariah Court institutions was rejected by state assembly Speaker Hannah Yeoh on the reason that they came under the jurisdiction of the judiciary and not the legislative.

However, the Permatang assemblyman said he would continue proposing the same motion at the next state assembly sitting as it was in line with the Selangor Sultan's speech delivered at the Nusantara Syariah Judicial and Law Conference last Tuesday.