Teresa pays for Puchong mosque speakers

By Shannon Teoh, Malaysian Insider.

PUCHONG, March 9 – She was locked up for a week on allegations of being anti-Islam but yesterday Kinrara state assemblywoman Teresa Kok donated a sum of RM10,000 to the Surau Darus Salam here for its new speaker system to broadcast the call to prayer or azan.

The donation was in conjunction with Maulidur Rasul, for which the Seputeh MP also gave RM2,500 each to a local Islamic daycare centre and primary school.

Kok, who is the senior executive councillor for Selangor, was accused of asking a mosque in the neighbouring constituency of Sri Serdang to reduce the volume of its azan call last year, leading to her arrest and week-long detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

“This donation is in contrast to those accusations,” Kok told The Malaysian Insider today.

“Frankly, I also wanted to donate cattle to the mosque concerned in those allegations,” she said, adding that those plans have not panned out.

This comes after the Sri Serdang mosque authorities had itself cleared her of any involvement in the issue, but then denied her request to pay a visit. It is said that this was due to pressure by Umno who have been harping on Kok’s supposed anti-Islam stance.

Kok said the donation yesterday was due to the fact that the speaker at the surau has “not been functioning well for some months” and any balance from the RM10,000 will be used to subsidise the surau’s repairs and renovations.

At yesterday’s visit to the surau, Kok had stressed again that she was not involved in the petition to protest against the azan call.

Instead, she said her ISA arrest had opened the eyes of the public to the abuse of the law.

Writing in her blog, Kok quoted Surau Darus Salam imam Haji Harun as thanking her contribution and advising her to be patient against accusations by those dissatisfied with her.