Zara’s mum denies abusive diary entries reflect daughter’s feelings

 Noraidah Lamat testifies that she had never seen such writings by her daughter.

Zara Qairina Mahathir’s mother told the coroner’s court that her daughter had never mentioned having problems with any of her friends or others. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA:

The mother of the late Zara Qairina Mahathir believes anyone could have written the profane and abusive remarks found in her daughter’s diary pages presented to the coroner’s court in Kota Kinabalu.

Noraidah Lamat said she had never come across such entries in any of her daughter’s diaries before, although she acknowledged that Zara regularly wrote about her friendships and daily activities, Sinar Harian reported.

Asked about diary entries allegedly expressing resentment towards her, Noraidah told Sabah prosecution director Nahra Dollah that she had never seen such writings by her daughter.

“I have never read the contents of her diaries, but Zara usually expressed her feelings through greeting cards. For example, birthday cards, Mothers’ Day cards and cards saying ‘Zara loves Mama’,” she said.

When shown an exhibit containing a diary page with the words “I have no mother”, Noraidah disagreed that the entry reflected her daughter’s feelings towards her, although she acknowledged that it contained vulgar and abusive language.

“I disagree because I have never seen Zara write like this,” she said.

Asked whether, logically, only Zara could have written the entry because it contained her full name and the word “mother”, Noraidah said someone else could also have written it.

Nahra also asked whether Noraidah agreed that the writing on the diary page, which included the word “babal” (fool), was directed at her because it also contained the word “Mama”.

“I disagree,” she said. However, Noraidah agreed that the entry was written in crude language.

“I agree that it is written in rather crude and abusive language, but I have never seen such expressions in any of Zara’s notebooks,” she said.

When shown another sheet of paper containing her name and the words “You shouldn’t have given birth to me”, Noraidah again disagreed that the entry reflected Zara’s feelings towards her.

She also disagreed that entries containing the words “disobedient child” and “my mama” reflected her daughter’s feelings towards her.

“Anyone could write something like this,” she said when asked whether Zara was the only person who could have written the entries.

During the same proceedings, Noraidah confirmed that she knew her daughter’s school friends but said Zara had never mentioned having problems with any of her friends or others.

However, when it was suggested that there could be no reason for Zara’s friends or others to write abusive remarks in the diary pages if they had no problems with her, Noraidah said people could behave differently in front of others and behind their backs.

“Sometimes, bad friends can be malicious in secret without us realising it. They may appear nice in front of us, but we do not know what they are like behind our backs,” she said. - FMT