PREACHER Wan Ji Wan Hussin believes that he has been made a scapegoat, following the arrest of Prison Department religious officer Zamihan Mat Zin last week.

Both preachers are being investigated over remarks allegedly made concerning the royalty.

Zamihan, who is on secondment from the Malaysian Islamic Development Department, was arrested on Wednesday after he criticised the Johor ruler’s ban on Muslim-only businesses in the state.

He was held at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters until his release on Saturday.

Wan Ji was arrested after Friday prayers two days later in Penang over a 2013 video of a lecture in which he allegedly said the sultanate would be abolished and Malaysia would become a republic in the future.

He was also brought to Dang Wangi and released yesterday.

Both men were placed in neighbouring cells in the police headquarters’ lock-up, and the irony was not lost on Wan Ji, who said each thought the other “had it coming”.

“Yes, he was held in the cell next to mine, and we only crossed paths when I was being taken out for questioning and he was coming back from being questioned. We didn’t speak to each other.

“An officer at the lock-up told me that Zamihan knew I was arrested and said ‘padan muka’ (serves him right). I laughed. I thought that was funny because I was thinking the same thing about him,” he told The Malaysian Insight, hours after his release.

Old case

Wan Ji, 35, a popular independent preacher formerly from PAS, said there was a possibility that his arrest was connected to that of Zamihan’s.

“I definitely feel that my arrest had to do with his arrest. Both happened so close, just two days apart.”

He said police did not tell him why he was called up and arrested over an old case concerning the 2013 YouTube video, titled (TERGEMPAR) Ust Wan Ji hapuskan sistem sultan.

He said he had already been summoned by police in 2013 when the video first appeared on YouTube.

When the video first went viral, the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia was among the earliest to lodge a police report.

“Police did not say why I was called up again over that old case. I was only told that the arrest this time was because someone had lodged a report against me over the video.”

Wan Ji said police asked him about 20 questions on the video, and he insisted that the content had been edited and parts taken out.

“There were a few questions on myself, and the rest were about the video. I told police that the video had been edited, taken out of context. The original video is different.”

He said in the original video, he spoke about how Prophet Muhammad had planned for the future, and gave several examples, including one on the sultanate.

It involved figurative remarks related to a branch of Islamic study called fiqh tawaqqu (futuristic thinking).

This is not Wan Ji’s first time facing a sedition probe.

In September 2014, he was charged with making a seditious statement on Facebook, which allegedly insulted Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor.

Targeting DAP

Wan Ji, who was recently appointed as Penang information officer, suspects that his arrest was to make the DAP-led Pakatan Harapan administration look bad.

“I cannot discount the possibility that I am being made a scapegoat because I work at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s office.

“Since I took the state government’s confidentiality oath and started work, I have been attacked non-stop. It is as if I have been made the punching bag for people unhappy with the PH government.

“They want to attack Lim, but when they fail to do so, they attack me,” he said, adding that he expected the attacks to worsen.

Although there has been no physical attacks, Wan Ji said he has faced verbal abuse, and all sorts of slander and accusations on social media.

“They have said all sorts of hurtful things. They called me ‘DAP macai’ (DAP lackey). As I was appointed government information officer, they think I have joined DAP. I am still a PKR member.

“They called me ‘kafir’ (infidel). And now, this old issue (the sedition case) popped up again,” said the PKR Youth religious bureau chief, formerly based in Selangor.

He said the attacks against him would not weaken him or make him afraid.

“I have more reason now to explain and set the record straight. When there are ceramah after this, I will explain my cases and the allegations against me.” – October 16, 2017.