PN, PAS and Bersatu should stop their unethical and irresponsible politics of exploiting lies to incite hatred and fear against Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh. Hannah has been compelled to repeatedly lodge police reports over the serial lies hurled against her by Bersatu and PAS leaders that has affected racial goodwill and undermined religious harmony.
Kelantan PAS Youth Chief Mohamad Kamal Mohamed lied that Hannah had used her Ministerial powers to deny Kelantan the right to organise the 2024 Malaysia Games (Sukma). The truth is that the Kelantan state government had agreed to organise the 2028 SUKMA edition to provide additional time to make preparations and construct sports facilities there.
Hannah was also subject to intense vilification by a Bersatu leader accusing her of supporting a “Jom Ziarah” initiative for a church visit by an NGO with funds from her ministry. Hannah was accused of allowing a Christian evangelism programme that could also target Muslim youths, even though Hannah had stressed that no Muslims but only non-Muslim youths are involved. Even PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan got into the act with all sorts of wild and baseless accusations against Hannah.
Civil defamation or criminal action can be taken later, but the initial damage affecting national unity and jeopardising religious harmony from these lies would be difficult to undo or control. For that reason, all Malaysians fully supports the warning issued by the Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that there will be zero tolerance towards any attempts to incite racial or religious sentiments in the country and has ordered the security services to be on full alert against any attempts by racists and extremists to disturb the country’s security.