The irony of the matter is that it was Saraswathy, a lawyer turned politician, who represented the defendants including the reporter, in the defamation suit brought on by Batu Caves Temple chairman Tan Sri R Nadaraja against Tamil Malar and its management for publishing an affidavit which was never tendered in court.
A sane publishing house will and should know that publishing any legal papers, not brought before the court is not only wrong but also stupid!
In an undated press statement Saraswathy appealed for funds under an non-governmental organisation with a bank account number attached to it. The press statement with government insignia was signed off with just her name, without her government post.
The question begs to be answered here is that is it right for a politician, more so a sitting deputy minister, to appeal for public funding in such a manner when she herself was the lawyer for the defendants in the case? She lost her case and now wants the public to fund for her own fumbles in arguing the matter.
She has forgotten that she is in the government now and the separation of powers that need to be adhered to. One analysts points out that it is her way of “getting back” at Nadarajah by issuing a four-page press statement for someone who has lost a defamation suit. Most of the contents in the press statement issued by the deputy minister vilified Nadarajah even further and supported the actions of the publisher.
She is now asking the public to fund the reporter’s dues to Nadaraja amounting to a whopping RM295,000.
“In this dire situation I am appealing to the public and the members of the community who value integrity and transparency, to come together and help to clear the bankruptcy of a journalist,” she said in the statement.
The deputy minister who has never been a journalist or shown sympathy to any other newsmen in the past has suddenly has become the champion of press freedom asking the public to rally “around those who dare to speak.”
Come on YB, people can smell a rat one KM away in this age and time? This tactic of using other person plight for your own mileage is long gone. You fought as a lawyer in the case and lost. If you really want to help him, we are sure, you can pull your “cables” to get it done.
There is no need for this dramatic four page press statement trying to ignite an issue and win brownie points among voters especially Indian voters.
The deputy minister also promised that she had sought help of an non-governmental organisation for collection of funds and that daily collection “with the bank’s authentication will be updated to the public through social media.”
A check on Facebook showed that the NGO does not even have a FB page under the name mentioned by the deputy minister. Even Saraswathy’s last posting on FB was in December last year. May be the social media mentioned by the deputy minister is watsapp and such!
Tothiran Kumar – Ipoh
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