In the latest instalment of the Permata tit-for-tat that has been raging for 72 hours, DAP assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin urged Rosmah Mansor's aide not to sidetrack from the main issues.

Yeo also asked if Rizal Mansor has run out of ideas on how to defend his boss.

“It is interesting that when we raise issues about Permata, Rizal would bring in other issues not related to Permata into the discussion.

“How is it that (Penang Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng has anything to do with whether Rosmah should be the patron of Permata?

“Is Rizal going to bring us around the world before he would reason with us on the call for Rosmah to resign as the patron of Permata?” she asked in a media statement.

Yesterday, Rizal dragged in Lim's corruption case when criticising Yeo for asking Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's wife to relinquish her post in Permata.

On Wednesday, when explaining that Rosmah's academic qualifications made her suitable for the Permata post, Rizal asked if Lim had the required expertise to head the Penang Water Supply Corporation.

This elicited a response from Lim, who censured Rizal for comparing him, an elected official, with the prime minister's wife.

Meanwhile, Yeo said despite Rizal's responses, there have been no clear answers to the main questions raised.

The Damansara Utama assemblyperson then listed four questions, which are:

1. Why do we need to place early childhood education development programmes under an agency in the Prime Minister's Department when other ministries, such as the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and Education Ministry, have more expertise and experience in the relevant field?

2. Why does Permata need to have a patron when countries with world-class early childhood education, such as Finland, Sweden, Singapore, etc, have no patron for their early childhood education development agencies?

3. What is the legitimacy of Rosmah's position in Permata? Is it by merit or marriage?

4. Is Permata sincere about meeting the demands for accountability and transparency, since Rosmah likes to “whine and play victim” about it?

“I would like to challenge Rizal not to drag other issues into our Permata discussion and answer the above questions head-on,” Yeo said.

The row began when Rosmah urged all quarters not to politicise and cast aspersions on Permata, and expressed disappointment that despite the allegations having been addressed, critics were still harping on the matter.

Following this, Yeo called on the prime minister's wife to step down as patron if she is unable to tolerate public scrutiny of an agency that is funded by taxpayers.