Universiti Utara Malaysia professor Kamarul Zaman Yusoff said Rafizi and Saari, who wrote the forewords for the book, were Yeoh’s allies, and had been part of the same coalition in the past.
Yeoh, of DAP, Rafizi and Saari, who was then with PAS, had been part of the now defunct opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat.
“Of course, they will back her up,” said Kamarul during re-examination by his lawyer, Khairul Azam Aziz, in Yeoh’s defamation suit against him.
Khairul had asked Kamarul to elaborate on why he disagreed with lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo’s earlier assertion that Rafizi and Saari, both Muslims, had no issues with the book’s content.
Sangeet had argued that their approval of the book undermined Kamarul’s claim that it offended Muslim sensitivities.
Khairul: Sangeet asked you about two Muslim individuals who said they had no problem with the book. You said you don’t agree. Can you explain why?
Kamarul: I don’t agree because Saari and Rafizi are friends of the plaintiff.
Kamarul said that based on his own experience as a special officer to a federal minister and the prime minister, politicians rarely had time to read books themselves.
He said ministers usually assigned their subordinates to read books and provide summaries.
“I’m just saying that this is what typically happens with politicians,” he said.
He also noted that neither Rafizi, who is now the economy minister, nor Saari, a former Selangor assemblyman, had provided any specific excerpts from Yeoh’s book to justify their support.
Yeoh, the youth and sports minister, is suing Kamarul for defamation after he accused her of “proselytising Christianity through her politics”.
She claimed that Kamarul had also accused her of driving a “Christian agenda” and of “intending to convert Malaysia into a Christian country”.
Yeoh said the words were offensive, entirely untrue, and a malicious attempt to defame her. She is seeking general, aggravated and exemplary damages from Kamarul.
Kamarul, who admitted to writing the posts, has maintained that his statements were based on excerpts from Yeoh’s book and were factual.
The trial before Justice Aliza Sulaiman continues.