Plain hypocrisy bred on political bias

 

When Kepala Batas MP Mastura Muhammad found herself in a bit of a financial quagmire recently, her party PAS was quick to jump in to help.

Its secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan announced that the party would launch a donation drive to get its members to help her pay the RM825,000 in damages and costs for the libel suit she lost.

It was much like another attempt, launched last year by the DAP, to help Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng settle a RM1.5 million suit that he also lost.

But while PAS only plans to ask its members to help, the DAP went to the public at large to ask them to dig deep into their pockets for Lim’s sake.

Mastura had, on Dec 4, lost a defamation suit brought against her by three DAP leaders over her claim that two of them had links with former Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng.

Mastura had made the claim during the campaign for the Kemaman by-election in December 2023.

The Penang High Court ruled that her statement was libellous and ordered her to pay DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang RM300,000 in damages and party chairman Lim Guan Eng RM250,000 for associating them with Chin Peng and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok RM200,000 for alleging that she had ties with the Lims.

Mastura was also ordered to pay costs of RM25,000 each to the trio, thus setting her back a total of RM825,000.

To help her raise the funds, Takiyuddin said, the party’s top brass decided to ask all members to pitch in.

The donation drive, never mind that it has been confined within the party, has drawn criticisms from several quarters.

Umno’s Puad Zakarshi said that by raising funds to help Mastura, the Islamist party had essentially made slander permissible.

He described the move as a strategy to sensationalise the issue and garner public sympathy.

Puad pointed out that former PAS ulama council secretary Khairuddin Aman Razali had also stated that raising funds to help someone pay civil damages for slander was unacceptable.

Khairuddin had earlier cited a verse from the Quran which states that cooperation in sinful and hostile acts is prohibited.

Human rights activist and lawyer Siti Kassim advised PAS supporters to not be fooled by the leadership into giving their money for the “derma jihad”.

In a video recording that she posted on Facebook, Siti said PAS members were “stupid or dumb or truly blind” if they fell for Takiyuddin’s trick.

DAP leaders are equally vocal in their objection to the donation drive.

Syaheera Ghafar, assistant publicity secretary of DAP Youth, wondered if the PAS rank and file would just oblige and make the party “infamous for normalising acts of slander”.

Lim Lip Eng himself, in response to PAS president Hadi Awang’s statement that the party has to be responsible for its members’ slip-ups, also chipped in with a comment that Hadi should advise Mastura to, among other things, pay up immediately.

He said this presented PAS an opportunity to prove its sincerity and admit that Mastura had committed a grave error. Otherwise, he said, it would show PAS up as a party that spouts empty rhetoric.

Ironically, none of them had a word to say against the DAP for asking everyone, even non-members, to help Lim meet his legal obligations.

For the record, MonSpace (M) Sdn Bhd director Jessy Lai Chai Suang had sued Lim in 2019 for statements that Lim allegedly made to give the impression that she was running an illegal business and had cheated Chinese investors.

Lai claimed that as a result of Lim’s statements, the police, Bank Negara Malaysia and the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry had been pressured to take action against her.

The High Court then ordered Lim to pay the company RM1 million in damages and another RM500,000 to Lai.

Were those who donated to Lim’s cause also “stupid, dumb or truly blind”?

Has the DAP made itself “infamous for normalising acts of slander”?

Perhaps those critics can tell us why there is this double standard? - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.