Kuala Lumpur: A professor of political science admitted in the High Court yesterday that a book authored by current youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh and published more than 10 years ago was never banned by the government.
Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, a senior lecturer at Universiti Utara Malaysia’s school of international studies, said under cross-examination that he had purchased Yeoh’s book, Becoming Hannah, A Personal Journey, from Kinokuniya in 2017.
Testifying yesterday in a libel lawsuit brought by Yeoh against him over two Facebook posts published in May of the same year, Kamarul admitted to authoring both postings and agreed that they referred to Yeoh, the Segambut MP.
He also agreed that the posts had labelled Yeoh a “hypocrite” for appearing to champion secularism in politics when her book said “the separation of religion from the state should apply only to Islam, and not Christianity”.
Kamarul rejected a claim by lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo, representing Yeoh, that Muslims in the country had never raised objections to the content of the book.
However, he agreed that neither the mufti, the law minister nor any other authority had taken any action on the book since it was published in 2014.
Sangeet: Do you agree this was the position, even when PAS held the position of law minister?
Kamarul: I agree.
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan held the law portfolio between March 2020 and August 2021.
Kamarul, whose primary professional interests concern the development of the country’s political parties, especially PAS, also agreed that Rafizi Ramli and Saari Sungib had written forewords for the book and had no issues with its content.
PKR vice-president Rafizi is the current economy minister, while Amanah’s Saari is a former three-term Selangor state assemblyman.
In his evidence-in-chief, Kamarul, a special officer to the prime minister from 2021 to 2022, denied that the two posts were defamatory of Yeoh.
He said his comments were based on excerpts from the book itself, factual in nature, and true.
The hearing continues before Justice Aliza Sulaiman on Thursday.
Kamarul was represented by Khairul Azam Aziz.
Yeoh filed the suit in 2022, claiming that Kamarul’s statements had 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”.
She said the words were offensive, entirely untrue, and a malicious attempt to defame her. She is seeking general, aggravated and exemplary damages from Kamarul.
