Hannah Yeoh says ex-lecturer who accused her of exploiting race and religion in Sabah election has withdrawn defamation suit

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh today said she has been validated after a former lecturer who had accused her of exploiting race and religion for political expediency chose to drop his lawsuit.

Yeoh, who is also Segambut MP, said former Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff filed a notice of discontinuance in court on January 30 with costs and a payment of RM5,000 to her, after suing her for defamation.

“I welcome the decision by Kamarul Zaman to retract his defamation suit against me for an alleged ‘defamatory’ Facebook post in 2020,” she said in a statement.

“In 2020, Kamarul Zaman made the comment ‘Using religion to win the state election?’ on a banner featuring my image, insinuating that I employed religious tactics while campaigning during the Sabah state elections.

“I promptly responded, highlighting his attempt to stoke racial and religious sentiments.

“Instead of retracting his statement and offering me an apology at that time, he decided to initiate a defamation lawsuit against me. I made it clear that I was thoroughly prepared to defend myself,” she recalled.

She said Kamarul Zaman’s withdrawal of his defamation suit last month not only proved her assertion that she did not not exploit religion in her political campaigns, but also that his allegations were baseless and unsubstantiated.

“Now that the suit has been withdrawn, I wish to lay this matter to rest,” she said.

Kamarul Zaman made the news in 2020 when he sued Yeoh over a Facebook post during the Sabah election.

The academic posted a banner on the social media platform that depicted Yeoh along with the words in Malay “Peranan Umat Kristian Dalam Pembangunan Negara” (The role of Christians in nation-building).

“Using religion to win the state election?” he added in a comment accompanying the Facebook post.

Yeoh sued Kamarul Zaman in 2022 for defamation over his 2017 Facebook post in which he claimed she was proselytising Christianity through her politics.

He later filed a police complaint to initiate investigations against Yeoh, accusing her of using her biography Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey, to further her “Christian agenda”.