Siti Aishah's sister seeks help from Malaysian envoy

The sister of Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab, a Malaysian woman who reportedly escaped 30 years of domestic enslavement in London, has met the Malaysian envoy there to seek help in meeting Aishah.

"Cikgu Kamar just met with Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Zakaria Sulong," activist Hishammuddin Rais wrote in his blog, referring to Aishah's sister Kamar Mahtum Abdul Wahab.

"In the discussion she sought the help of the diplomat to pass a letter she had written to Chief Inspector Neil Hamilton who is heading the investigation (on the alleged enslavement)."

Hishamuddin (right), a former student activist on self-imposed exile in London when Siti Aishah was active in student politics there in the 1970s, is accompanying Kamar Mahtum on the trip.

They hail from the same village in Jelebu, Negri Sembilan.

In the blog post uploaded at 2.06am Malaysian time (6.06pm on Wednesday in London), he said Zulkifli explained that the Malaysian High Commission is in touch with British police on the matter.

"The diplomat was very sympathetic towards Cikgu Kamar," he wrote.

'Slim chance'

Meanwhile, Astro Awani editor Zan Azlee Zainal Abidin, who is related to Siti Aishah reportedly said there is only a slim chance that Kamar Mahtum can meet her younger sister.

As such, Kamar Mahtum has resorted to writing a letter to Siti Aishah, a scholarship student studying surveying in London, and who reportedly cut ties with family after she joined a Maoist group.

Separately, dailies today quoted those who knew Siti Aishah when she a student as describing her as a "very intelligent" and a "very cute girl" much coveted by her peers.

She had moved to London in 1968 with her fiancé but broke off the engagement as she became more active in leftist politics.

Siti Aishah's peers include PKR senator Syed Husin Ali (right), who reportedly told BBC that he doubts that she was "enslaved" as widely reported.

"That group back then, had a very centralised ideology, it tends to control its members, even in association with others, that could have happened to her," he was quoted as saying.

Syed Husin, student in London from 1966 to 1968, said he recalled three Malaysian women were part of the group and that the other two had broken away.

On Oct 25, British police reportedly rescued three women, including Siti Aishah, from a flat in Brixton where they were allegedly kept in domestic "enslavement".

Police have arrested couple Aravinda Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda, who are alleged to have held these women without consent.