KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Gerakan president Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon has labelled Penang’s new non-Muslim portfolio an unnecessary publicity stunt.

The former Penang chief minister said that the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration had always dealt with non-Muslim issues without having to create a special portfolio.

“We have actually been dealing with non-Muslim issues without having to call it a portfolio and they (Pakatan Rakyat) are only doing this as a publicity stunt,” the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department told reporters during a press conference at Gerakan’s headquarters. 

The senator added that the portfolio is unnecessary if the state’s chief minister Lim Guan Eng was doing his job.

On Wednesday, the Penang government announced a new executive council portfolio to handle non-Muslim religious issues in the state, then thought to be the first such portfolio in the country.

However, an Utusan Malaysia report later claimed the portfolio to be a “tool” by DAP that can be used to threaten Islam as the official religion of Malaysia.

The Umno-owned Malay daily said the portfolio — which comes under Lim’s purview — could discuss religious conversion, preaching, use of religious terms, construction of houses of worship and cemeteries. This, it said, could be used to put other religions on an equal footing with Islam.

Koh (picture) also defended Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s statement that warned Muslims that religious pluralism was un-Islamic because it places Islam on an equal footing with other faiths.

Najib also asked government Islamic agencies and religious teachers to explain the issue to the Muslim community.

“I think he was referring from a theological point and what we (the government) have been doing is promoting a better understanding (through the interfaith panel),” said Koh.

Koh reiterated that the government was still committed to the inter-faith panel.