KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor has taken aim at DAP lawmaker Ramkarpal Singh, pointedly inviting the MP to deliver a religious lecture to Muslims on the vices of gambling.
Sanusi's remarks followed comments from Ramkarpal, who urged the state government to focus on educating Muslims against gambling rather than seeking ways to bypass a Federal Court ruling on commercial gaming licences.
Addressing a briefing organized by the Kedah Information Secretariat on the legal hurdles facing the state's gambling ban, Sanusi reiterated that his administration will not abandon its push to eliminate gaming premises, FMT reported.
“We already have someone from DAP reminding us not to look for ways (to ban gambling in Kedah),” Sanusi said.
“Fine, we’ll invite him to give a talk later. Let DAP give a talk to Muslims telling them not to gamble.”
On August 12, the Federal Court dismissed the Kedah government's application for leave to appeal an appellate court decision that ruled the state had acted unconstitutionally in refusing to renew local business licences for lottery and pool betting operators.
Following the apex court defeat, Sanusi asserted that the ultimate decision to permit or halt gambling operations in the state now rests squarely with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who also holds the finance portfolio.
Sanusi warned that approving licences for gaming outlets would spark widespread public backlash in Kedah.
“So the ball is in the finance minister’s court,” he said.
At the same event, PAS central legal and human rights bureau chairman Wan Rohimi Wan Daud claimed that gaming operators are mounting a similar legal challenge against neighbouring Perlis over its ban on numbers forecast outlets.
Wan Rohimi, who is also the Melor assemblyman, noted that a group had recently initiated court proceedings to overturn the policy.
“What Kedah has gone through may spread to Perlis next. I was informed that in Perlis, this gambling group has already filed a new case.
“They want to challenge it like in Kedah, and then target other states,” he said.
Perlis Menteri Besar Abu Bakar Hamzah stated in June that the state government remains resolute in shutting down gaming operations, upholding a phased closure policy initiated by his predecessor, Shukri Ramli.
Perlis completed the total shutdown of gaming outlets earlier this year following the closure of its final betting outlet in Padang Besar in early March.
