Rape row: Gerakan Youth leader rebukes Shamsul
Athi Shankar
ALOR STAR: A Gerakan Youth leader today rebuked PKR national Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Akin for criticising Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s call on all to stop passing judgments on the “Rais Yatim” case
Kedah Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang said he was upset that Shamsul and the PKR Youth movement could not accept a simple advice from the premier.
He said that in a fair and democratic country, a person shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Hence, he pointed out that one cannot be prejudged and sentenced prematurely until one was found guilty following completion of a proper investigation and a fair trial.
“Although Pakatan Rakyat is all geared up to conquer the country, its mission shall not be accomplished at the expense of the country’s legal system based on fairness and democracy,” Tan said in a statement today.
The embattled Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim is embroiled in an alleged rape case that happened in 2007 involving his former Indonesian domestic maid.
The case has burst into the hottest public topic in the country today, prompting Najib to make a public call to all to stop commenting about it until a full probe was completed.
“We cannot prejudge and pronounce something against someone before proper investigation is done. In any case, what happened was in 2007, the question is why (bring it up) now,” he was quoted as saying in press reports.
Double standards
Shamsul has chided Najib’s call as irresponsible and a practice of double standards.
“It shows two sets of law being applied here, one for Umno and another against the opponents of Umno,” Shamsul has reportedly said.
After weeks of speculations on “who’s who” of the case, Rais finally came out in the open this week to vehemently deny he was the alleged minister involved.
Another of his former domestic maid, Sumati, came in support of him to dismiss the rape claims.
A video featuring Sumati dismissing the allegations as untrue has appeared on several pro-Umno blogs since yesterday.
Sumati is said to be a friend of Robengah, the woman at the centre of Internet rumour of the alleged rape case,.
Sumati is said to have worked alongside Robengah at the minister’s home at the material time.
“For as long as I have worked here, I never heard of any rape stories,” she said a five-minute video clip dated Jan 6, 2011.
Sumati, who said she knew Robengah since she started work on Aug 23, 1999, said as room mates, Robengah had never once skipped sleeping in their room, responding to a question whether there had been any night Robengah was absent.
Robengah returned to Indonesia in 2007.
Political factions
Sumati also said that they were happy with the treatment from Masnah, Rais’s wife, during their employment.
“If not, I would not have lasted so long,” she added.
Tan said Shamsul’s criticism against Najib has put the country’s political standards at its lowest ebb.
He accused certain political factions of pressing on false allegations against Barisan Nasional leaders merely to serve their selfish agenda.
He alleged these quarters are prepared to sow seeds of suspicion among Malaysians that all BN leaders were criminals as charged without proper probes and trials.
He expressed disappointment that these quarters were willing to deploy any unethical methods to achieve their political goals.
He said the whole episode had already unfairly tarnished the image of Rais and his family, as well as the country’s international reputation.
“Are these principles of justice and democracy advocated by Pakatan?” asked Tan.
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