DAP MP to sue three dailies

Gobind Singh rejects reports that he and Teresa Kok falsely promised to help a woman in need.

PETALING JAYA: Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo is suing three dailies over a report alleging that he and Selangor executive councillor Teresa Kok had made false promises to a needy woman.

He told reporters that neither he nor Kok had ever met the woman, S Valanthi, who made her allegations at a press conference apparently organised by Alternative Action Team (AAT), a NGO professing to fight for the welfare of poor Malaysian Indians.

Gobind, speaking at a press conference with Kok at his side, said the three newspapers—Sinar Harian, Harian Metro and Tamil Nesan—had defamed both of them by their failure to ascertain the truth of the allegations before publishing their reports on Sunday..

“I even invited the three dailies to attend this press conference, but no one turned up to hear our side of the story,” he said.

The papers quoted Valamathi as saying that Gobind and Kok visited her last November and promised to locate her husband, whom police had detained for drug abuse, and to settle her outstanding utility bills, amounting to RM2,300.

“But nothing has been done and we have not had any water or electricity for the past one year,” she said, according to the reports.

AAT president B Kalaivanar, who was at her side during the press conference, reportedly accused Gobind and Kok of pretending to help the needy in order to gain political support from the public.

Gobind said: “It doesn’t make sense at all. We’ve never met her before. So how are we to gain any publicity from this?”

Kok said this was not the first time that Kalaivanar had thrown accusations at her. He would usually do so through the Tamil dailies, she added.

“I have never met him before,” she said. “I think he is just trying to portray DAP as a party that neglects the Indian community in Selangor.”

Kalaivanar was a PKR member before he quit in the party in 2009 during the Bukit Selambau by-election.

A video shot during Gobind’s and Kok’s press conference is available here.