COMMENT Rosmah Mansor is once again caught in another controversy when her name was unceremoniously dropped by the Antiquities Coalition.

The others who will be receiving the award today include Senegal President Macky Sall and activists such as Ayub Mohamud (Kenya), Nicholas Kristof (New York Times) and Nadia Murad (Iraq) who, according to news reports, are renowned the world over for championing universal peace.

Six other women who were also recognised are Sara Bloomfield, the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Unesco Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith, Meera Gandhi, (founder and CEO of The Giving Back Foundation); Francine Lefrak (Harvard Women’s Leadership Board); Deborah Lehr (Antiquities Coalition chairperson) and Catherine Reynolds (founder and CEO of Catherine Reynolds Foundation).

The wife of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was supposed to have received the ‘Lead by Example’ Award for her Permata programme.

Her name was, in fact, recommended by the Antiquities Coalition themselves, so for them to drop her name at the eleventh hour says something about international organisations who take their awards seriously. They cannot risk their own organisations being tainted, especially when an award is given to a wrong person.

A good example is when the University of Adelaide dropped the name of former Sarawak chief minister Taib Mahmud from its hall of fame, after objections were made by alumni over concerns that money donated to the university came from alleged illegal logging in Sarawak.

Ramesh Rao riled me up

Therefore, I simply think that Pertubuhan Minda dan Sosial Prihatin president Ramesh Rao is out of his mind to even claim that the Antiquities Coalition is Jewish-based.

According to its website, the coalition is helmed by a number of prominent Muslim leaders including Dr Mohamed Ibrahim (former minister of antiquities) and Sameh Hassan Shoukry (Foreign Minister of Egypt).

Both Juan Zarate (Foundation for Defence of Democracies) and Irina Bokova (director-general of Unesco) were the other big names.

If not for Rao’s statement, I would not have taken the trouble to analyse further into this controversy to find out what is the truth. My question is: How could Rao allege that the Antiquities Coalition was involved in a plot to embarrass Rosmah on an international level when most Malaysians do not think that she is qualified to receive the award?

Rao should just look at the number of shares when news first broke out that Rosmah’s name had been dropped at the eleventh hour. I can imagine from a state of horror a day earlier when they first read the news, now there was the shout of hurray from many Malaysians who started making the news viral on social media.

Malaysians have never been known to respond in such a manner compared with other women who were deemed to be noble wives of former prime ministers. Why only Rosmah?

Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, wife of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, for example, could still pick up violin at old age, can Rosmah who is much younger, do the same? I cannot claim to have the patience to learn the violin, and after four months, my violin is sitting on the shelf collecting dust, but Dr Siti Hasmah? She has mesmerised her audience on stage!

If ever someone is qualified for the award, I would nominate the country’s first Malay woman doctor, Dr Siti Hasmah, who is worth emulating. I would be impoverished within a month of marrying a wife who spends lavishly on Birkin bags, jewelleries and shoes.

Therefore, the embarrassment is not the result of Rosmah’s name being dropped, but whether the recipient qualified for such an award or not.

And, MyKMU.net is promoting extremism by challenging Education Minister Mahadzir Khalid to suspend all Unesco Malaysia officers under the Education Ministry just because the coalition had asked to defer the award till 2017.

Tomorrow: Reading between the lines on Permata’s award

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.