Attack on Hannah Yeoh puts education in spotlight, Kit Siang claims

KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today questioned if the Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer accused of trying to incite religious strife by making false allegations against Selangor Speaker Hannah Yeoh is fit to teach in a multiracial public university.

The Gelang Patah MP said public universities are meant to foster racial unity and they should not tolerate someone like Kamarul Zaman Yusof, whom Lim said was attempting to preach hate by falsely accusing Yeoh of spreading a Christian agenda.

“Kamarul Zaman Yusof’s false and malicious police report against..Hannah Yeoh, accusing her of proselytization of Muslims with the publication of her autobiography “Being Hannah”, raises the question whether he is fit and proper to be a lecturer of plural Malaysia’s public universities,” LIm said in a statement.

He added that Kamarul’s actions also reflected the government’s failure in nation-building process, and that it must be corrected immediately.

The Universiti Utara Malaysia senior lecturer in a letter to Malay paper Utusan Melayu alleged Yeoh extolled the benefits of Christianity in her book titled Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey, and mixed it with politics.

This led to Yeoh lodging a police report against Kamarul for defamation.

Kamarul in response lodged a police report against Yeoh yesterday, claiming that Yeoh’s book is “trying to persuade and incite non-Christians, including Muslims, to convert to Christianity”.

Lim in defence of his party colleague said “it is unimaginable that Hannah Yeoh’s autobiography on her personal journey to be a good Christian so as to be a good Malaysian would have caused objections”.

The DAP veteran said Yeoh’s attempt to project good values by being a good Christian should instead be celebrated as something positive.

“Hannah Yeoh’s personal journey to be a good Christian so as to be a good Malaysian is a journey Rukunegara wants all Malaysians to take, for all Malaysians to be respectively good Muslims, good Buddhists, good Christians, good Hindus, good Sikhs and good Taoists so as to become good Malaysians,” he said.

Lim added that Yeoh’s belief in doing good also subscribe to the five Rukunegara principles of: Belief in God; loyalty to King and Country; the Supremacy of the Constitution; the Rule of Law and Good behaviour and Morality.

Adding on, the Gelang Patah MP also said there is no such agenda in the DAP or among any DAP MP or State Assembly representative.

“For the past seven years, Hannah Yeoh had been an exemplary Malaysian, Speaker and DAP elected representative who serves all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or socio-economic background,” he said.