PAS tells UN to show proof
The United Nations office in Kuala Lumpur today received two memoranda from opposition party PAS protesting against a recent UN report linking several Malaysian organisations, including PAS and Barisan Nasional, to 'terrorist' groups.
The two memoranda, submitted by PAS' international affairs bureau chief Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli and Youth chief Mahfuz Omar (photo), said the UN monitoring group on global terrorism, which prepared the report, had acted in bad faith by publishing unverified allegations against the named organisations.
"We feel that it is unfair for these allegations to be made without any proof or reasons. Our only contention is that the allegations were made to tarnish our image for being a good observer of democracy," said Mohd Hatta during a press conference after the handover of the memoranda at Wisma UN in Kuala Lumpur.
PAS' concerns will be conveyed to the secretary-general's office and a response will be sought to their calls for a retraction of the allegations, said Maxine Olson, the Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, on receiving the memoranda.
The secretary-general's office in New York did not respond to questions faxed over by malaysiakini yesterday.
Aside from the two political parties, other organisations named in the report are the Islamic Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim), the Indian Muslim Congress of Malaysia (Kimma), the Movement of Islamic Unity (APU), the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (MIYM), the Islamic Front of Malaysia (IFM) and the Front Malaysian Islamic Council (FMIC).
However, APU and MIYM are said to have disbanded while the IFM and the FMIC are said to be non-existent.
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