Negara-Ku head defends Ambiga

PETALING JAYA: Negara-Ku chairman Zaid Kamaruddin has defended its patron, Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan, who has been criticised by Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma).
He said the comments by Isma was based on a false premise and added that Isma should engage in a coherent dialogue to achieve greater understanding between different views.
He was referring to the comments attributed to Isma's Hanan Othman and Muhammad Luttfi Abdul Khalid in a news portal on July 16 titled "Ambiga changes tune in 24 hours, raps Isma".
Zaid said Hanan refers to Ambiga's call to the Opposition to look at legislation to resolve the issue of unilateral conversion of minors to Islam.
He said she alleges this is hypocrisy, given Ambiga's statement that Negara-Ku go back to the Federal Constitution.
"In this regard, it must be noted that since its inception, the Federal Constitution has been amended almost 700 times, first by the Alliance government and later, the Barisan Nasional government," Zaid said in his reply.
He also pointed out that if Hanan's point is taken to be sound, it would mean that the Federal Constitution has been under serial attack by the government since independence.
"She (Ambiga) had asked for legislation to address the problem that has caused grave concern to many quarters," added Zaid.