“I am giving Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rohani Abdul Karim a week to apologise or I will drag them both to court.

“Prove that I was paid, and by whom. I will cooperate by showing my bank account, if I was indeed paid. The Perbak bank account does not have much money,” its president Muhammad Khairul Hafiz Abdullah told reporters here today.

On Sept 25, the ministry lodged a report with the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on the spread of a video called “Suara anak tong sampah” on social media, alleging that the department had neglected its residents.

In the video, Khairul alleged that 1,758 people who had left the department’s care centre had still not obtained citizenship. He blamed the department for not carrying out its responsibility, resulting in the children only having temporary citizenship.

Rohani reportedly said the ministry had met up with the individual in the video and “he admitted being paid to do that”.

“The matter was already resolved in 2012. However, certain irresponsible quarters are recycling old videos to politicise the issue and tarnish the ministry’s image and that of the department,” she said.

Khairul however was ready to defend the video and the good name of his association.

“I challenge her to say where I had said I was paid to release the video, and I also challenge the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to probe my accounts.”

Khairul said on Sept 28, the government had announced temporary identity cards for those previously under the department’s care, but Perbak disputed the card’s functions and whether it was recognised by all government agencies.

“Why have this card? It goes to show the accusations in the video are true,” he said.

Khairul himself alleged he had to live a destitute life for six years after leaving the care centre in Durian Daun, Melaka, until he obtained citizenship in 2011.

He stressed that this was not a political issue but a humanitarian one.