“Just because someone is a member of a political party and that someone commits a crime does not mean the entire party has committed a crime,” she said today in a press statement in response to comments the two DAP politicians have made about Umno.
Earlier Syerleena and Dyana gave examples of how Malay reserve land was sold off for property and hotel projects, after the duo was challenged to show proof that Umno had cheated the Malay community.
She asked if the examples Syerleena and Dyana gave were of Umno as a party cheating the Malays or of people who happen to be Umno members who cheated other Malays, assuming they did cheat the Malays in the first place.
Earlier today, Syerleena told FMT of several deals involving Malay reserve land being sold, including one lot in Penang in 2012 involving two Umno politicians, and another involving a tycoon.
In response Raja Sara, daughter of blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, cited Anwar Ibrahim’s jailing on a sodomy charge and said “is it he or is it his whole party, which will include his family as well, who was convicted of sodomy? Would it be fair for me to allege that PKR committed sodomy just as DAP says the whole Umno cheated the Malays?”
She suggested that the DAP pair may not understand the concept of providing evidence to back their claims. “Proof requires tangible evidence and not mere allegations like what these two are doing,” she said.
Raja Sara said she knew certain politicians in her home state of Terengganu who “twisted the arm” of the state government to approve certain projects in Pulau Redang, despite its status as a marine park.
“The state government had no choice but to reluctantly approve those projects to this Chinese tycoon, as they also had to do in Langkawi,” she said.
“So what are these two DAP girls trying to say? Are they saying the then Prime Minister cheated the Malays by giving land to a Chinese tycoon? If this is what they are trying to say then say it,” she said.
She added that even Umno politicians at that time were not happy about it but Umno could not say anything because of “who the PM was”, alluding to Dr Mahathir Mohamed, who was then the leader of the country.
If Umno were to protest against the government’s decision to give land to Chinese businessmen, then DAP would have lashed out and accused Umno of being racist. “But when we say nothing, you will say Umno is cheating the Malays.”
Raja Sara said Syerleena and Dyana should be clear instead of being vague if they were furious that “Malay land” was given to Chinese businessmen. “Can you both please grow up and stop fabricating issues from thin air?” she said.
Raja Sara had previously accused the DAP of a double standard, as those people who had criticised her because of her father’s views and actions were also the ones who had defended DAP’s Sungai Pinang assemblywoman Lim Siew Khim by saying she should not be blamed for what her father has been accused of doing.
Siew Khim’s father is being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for allegedly being involved in a racket where prospective home-owners in Penang paid him money to cut the queue for the state’s public housing schemes.