I, as Ampang MP, am responding to Rosmah’s self-flattering statement, “ Do I look like a liar? I don't, right? " that she made in Kerdau yesterday.

The way Rosmah answered her own doubts already showed that Rosmah herself was not confident of being truthful, that she is herself suspicious and incapable of gaining others’ trust.

I just have to quote a case in Sarawak where Rosmah promised the women there that she would look into the plight of the Penan girls and women.

In March 2010, three Sarawakian women activists personally handed a petition to Puan Rosmah in an attempt to engage her support in bringing justice to the Penan girls and women who have reported to have been raped by loggers.

Rosmah was at the time having a luncheon with all the women NGOs in Kuching, Sarawak

The allegations of rape have been proven true by the federal women’s ministry taskforce report, set up by the ministry helmed by Shahrizat.

Rosmah told the three women activists at the luncheon in Kuching that she would  look into the matter. She was also given a copy of the Penan taskforce report .

But did Rosmah respond to that petition after a year? The answer is a resounding “No”.

Further it is ironic, and embarrassing, in the eyes of the world that recently, the Penan Support Group (PSG), a coalition of 36 NGOs in Malaysia, put up a page on facebook under the name ‘Penan Support Group Education’, in an effort to call for funds to set up pre-schools in the interior of Sarawak for dispossessed Penan children, while Rosmah could waste RM24 million on a glittering ‘summit’.

Rosmah had claimed that the summit ‘A child today, a leader of tomorrow’ launched by her is a recognition of  the importance of education to our young and that the summit is to look into matters pertaining to child education.

However, the enormous sum spent on ths summit could well have built 50 pre-schools in the kampungs, and kept them running for 20 years for the rural children of Sarawak!

And worse, Rosmah was allocated a fund of RM111 million for her Permata, Rosmah’s child education agency.

We call for transparency in the use of these funds and urge that some of these funds be channelled to the Penan Support Group to provide for the pre-school education of needy rural children in Sarawak.

The writer is member of parliament for Ampang.