Who are you to judge my apology, Umno man tells DAP leaders

Sepang Umno chief Noorazli Said today hit back at DAP leaders who claimed his apology for making a lewd “joke” involving the Catholic clergy was insincere.

Noorazli said the DAP leaders were in no position to judge his apology as only God could determine a person’s sincerity.

He maintained that his apology was sincere and that he had no intention of insulting Christians, priests or nuns. He also accepted that he deserved reprimand for his “inaccurate” reference to Psalm 129 in the Bible.

“If what I said hurt the feelings of the Christian community, I apologise. That is my stand,” he said in a Facebook post.

Noorazli also cited several Bible verses about forgiveness and mercy, and urged his critics to be fair to him.

“Don’t talk about love and tolerance, and then rush to judge one’s sincerity when they offer an apology. If every apology must pass a political evaluation before it’s accepted, our society will never have peace.

“I’m not asking anyone to forget what happened. I’m simply asking you to be fair.

“I am choosing to learn from this and move forward with respect for all religions, because my religion teaches love, tolerance and forgiveness. I hope my critics are ready to do the same,” he said.

Noorazli drew brickbats over the “joke” he had made in a speech at the Umno general assembly on Saturday. It revolved around a priest and a nun and hinged on a punchline erroneously attributed to Psalm 129.

A police report was filed against him, and Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh, Sabah Umno treasurer Salleh Said Keruak and Tuaran MP Wilfred Madius Tangau demanded that he apologise.

The Umno divisional leader said yesterday that he was “prepared to apologise” if he had “caused misunderstanding or offended the feelings of any party, especially Christians”.

Several hours later, he amended his Facebook post to say that he apologised, instead of saying he was “prepared to apologise”.

DAP’s Bilut assemblyman Lee Chin Chen criticised Noorazli’s statement, saying an offer to apologise if one found the joke offensive and saying sorry for an inappropriate joke were entirely different matters.

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