De facto law minister Nancy Shukri said reports claiming she and Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai had made conflicting statements were incorrect. 

She explained that following a public outcry, the cabinet was merely given a briefing why extreme Malay rights NGO Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali was not prosecuted for his alleged threat to burn Malay-language bibles.

 

However, it is not in a position to make any decisions on the matter, she told a press conference today.

 

“Cabinet has decided? Actually from what I saw, that is incorrect. That’s why, don’t rely on social media. I had just read (reports) yesterday that Liow and I are conflicting each other.

 

“Actually, we the cabinet don’t make decisions for the AG (attorney-general), okay? The AG acts in accordance to the law, so if we give orders to the AG, people would ask why are we meddling in AG’s duties,” she said when asked to comment on the reports.

 

On Saturday last week, Nancy reportedly told the Gerakan women's wing's annual general meeting that the cabinet had discussed the matter and made a decision, but did not disclose what the decision was.

 

Yesterday however, Sin Chew Daily quoted Liow( left ) saying that the cabinet did discuss the issue but did not make any decision, and that claims to the contrary are misleading .

Nancy had come under criticism after making a parliamentary written reply that Ibrahim was not prosecuted because he was merely defending Islam by urging Muslim students to burn Malay-language bibles containing the word 'Allah' if they had received it, and was not meant to spread religious disharmony.

 

She has since clarified that the parliamentary reply had come from the AG’s Chambers.

 

' Unhealthy discussions'

Meanwhile, Nancy pleaded to the public, especially the media, to stop discussing the issue, saying that such discussions are unhealthy.

 

“Can I appeal to you not to bring up this issue anymore? Our country keeps telling these bad stories, it is very unhealthy. That case went viral because the reply has become a racial and religious issue.

 

“Be responsible Malaysians. That’s enough. How many weeks has it been already, that we have been told such stories?” she said.

 

She added that her parliamentary reply would have been similar, if the threat was to burn the Quran.

 

“We don’t want people to burn bibles. We don’t want people to burn any of the religious books.

 

“But I had to answer based on what was done, what was carried out. Based on their analysis, there wasn’t enough evidence (to charge) - that is their answer,” she said.

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