exclusive She was born out of wedlock to a Malaysian ruler and a Filipino nurse. Her attempts to reconcile with her father were spurned when the on-going negotiations for a settlement hit a brick wall at the end of last year.

Carla Brizuela Shah, 19, was the product of an alleged forced liaison between Dina Brizuela Cooper and Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang. Dina claimed that she was coerced into several sexual encounters with the sultan when he was the seventh Agong from 1979 to 1984.

According to Dina, she became pregnant as a result of the affair and was abandoned by the sultan.

Accepting responsibility for fathering Carla, the sultan had sought to negotiate with Dina since 1997 for a settlement amounting to RM10 million.

The negotiations lasted four years and ended in failure late last year, resulting in the two parties parting in acrimonious circumstances. Dina then resorted to the power of the Internet to highlight her story to the public.

When malaysiakini contacted Dina and Carla for an interview, the news website was told that Carla was reluctant to be interviewed "as she is still very hurt by what has happened with her father", and that she wanted to concentrate on her college studies.

Dad's acceptance

Dina told malaysiakini that Carla just wanted to be acknowledged as the sultan's daughter.

"It is unfair to her to be treated as an outcast. She just wants to visit her father and get to know her half-brothers and -sisters," said Dina.

Speaking on behalf of Carla, Dina said that her daughter, through the negotiation, had wanted to develop a relationship with her father and share some of her life with him.

"She wanted to have the ability to visit him annually, for a period of two weeks each summer and maybe one or two weeks during her winter break," said Dina.

Dina stressed that Carla never had the intention of becoming a royal princess at all.

Carla is currently pursuing her studies at a university in California, majoring in philosophy and pre-law. Her ambition is to become a lawyer.

Dina said Carla was a bright student who volunteers herself to feed the homeless. Her daughter also worked with disadvantaged youth through her church.

First meeting

"Carla has also informed her father through his lawyers that the reconciliation she sought was not for money and that she was not for sale," said Dina, adding that Carla was disappointed when the sultan and his lawyers indicated in the meetings that he was reluctant to have a steady relationship with his daughter.

According to Dina, the settlement must include a written acknowledgment of Carla's paternity, an agreement that Carla be allowed to visit her father annually and that Carla be accepted as one of the sultan's children.

However, a source close to the royal family told malaysiakini that despite the sultan's willingness to offer RM10 million to both mother and daughter, Dina wanted Carla to be part of the sultan's inheritance.

Carla saw her father for the first time in London in October 1990. At that time, there was no negotiation going on between the parties.

Dina said that negotiation talks only began after the sultan withdrew his first attempt to settle the matter in 1997. She said that the talks did not go very far as the sultan had refused to acknowledge paternity responsibility in writing.

Dina is now married and settled in California, the United States. She said she has her own business in designing, making and supplying arts and crafts to stores and boutiques.

Poverty-stricken life

Dina said that Carla had a very difficult childhood and was not living a lavish lifestyle like the sultan's other children.

"Sometimes, not having enough money to purchase milk for Carla, I had to rely on others to feed her. This was especially galling, considering that the sultan was aware of the existence of his child," she said.

Dina said after she got pregnant, her family disowned her, leaving her to fend for herself and the newly-born child.

"I had no money to pay for Carla's delivery and had to borrow 2,000 pesos (RM140) from strangers to pay hospital bills."

A year later, mother and toddler were evicted from their apartment, at the ungodly hour of 11pm, "as I didn't have money to pay the rent".

"Carla and I had to stand at a street corner for a friend to take us in," Dina said.

She said prior to the termination of the negotiation, the sultan had provided periodic remittances for Carla's schooling, boarding and lodging after she entered college about two years ago.

However, Dina said that money was a secondary issue in this matter, and that she is more interested in getting the sultan to accept Carla without any attempt to put her at risk or in financial servitude.

"All that she ever wanted was to be accepted as the sultan's daughter."

Letters

To that end, Carla wrote letters to her father and his lawyers.

In her letter to her father in November last year, Carla said she just wanted the respect and rights that the sultan gives his other children.

"I am not asking for your financial support or any other type of monetary support, but I am demanding to meet with you ... I am your biological daughter," she wrote.

In a letter to the sultan's lawyers in 1997, Carla said she did not want to become a princess, but merely wanted to claim her identity.

She also wrote that at a meeting with her father in London in 1997, he told her that she could meet him at anytime she wanted.

"But why you (the lawyer) and my father keep lying and hiding my existence?" she asked in the letter.

Time with dad

In another letter to the lawyers in the same year, Carla wrote that she just wanted to spend some time with her father before it is too late.

She also asked her father in a letter written in March last year as to the reasons for his change in attitude towards her since their meeting in 1997.

"Why do you fear me or treat me like an enemy? I am still the same girl whom you met four years ago in London. It isn't my attitude that continues to poison the atmosphere ... it's yours," she wrote.

The letters are available from Dina's [#1] website [/#].

[#2] Part 1: Sultan fathered illegitimate daughter, says ex-Filipino nurse [/#]