Zaharudin slams Sim for 'dodging' legal letter, vows third delivery attempt

Summary

• PAS’ Zaharudin Muhammad accuses Human Resources Minister Steven Sim of deflecting from a defamation dispute by focusing on the latter’s office closure.

• Zaharudin insists his intention was to serve a legal letter and challenge Sim to a debate on the MM2H policy.

• He plans a third attempt to deliver the letter, urging Sim to engage with the actual issues.

Sungai Buloh PAS division chief Zaharudin Muhammad is not backing down in his dispute with Human Resources Minister Steven Sim, accusing the latter of “playing victim” and intentionally creating a negative perception against him.

Zaharudin, who had previously attempted to serve Sim a letter of demand for alleged defamation, claimed that the DAP minister was avoiding addressing the “real issue” and was instead harping on the closure of his Bukit Mertajam service centre. 

“I said nothing negative (in a previous video) about the closure of (Sim’s) service centre,” Zaharudin (above, centre), who is also PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s son-in-law, said in a lengthy Facebook post last night. 

“It is Sim himself who is blowing up this issue - perhaps to deflect from the real point of my letter of demand and challenge to debate the MM2H (Malaysia My Second Home) programme.

“If Sim were a gentleman, he would respond by focusing on these issues (instead of) leaning more towards playing the victim and accusing me of deliberately trying to create a malicious perception,” he added.

He also expressed his intentions to visit Sim’s parliamentary service centre again on Tuesday (July 8), in a third attempt to serve Sim with the legal letter.

“I hope Sim will show more statesmanship and willingness to engage in dialogue on national issues and the people’s future, rather than playing on sentiments and spreading slander,” Zaharudin said.

Unsuccessful letter serving

The PAS figure had initiated legal action against Sim earlier over the DAP deputy secretary-general’s criticism of Zaharudin’s controversial remarks on the promotion of the army’s first Chinese lieutenant general.

While Zaharudin and his team had shown up at Sim’s Bukit Mertajam service centre in person twice to hand over a letter of demand, they were dismayed that the office was closed.

Sim later explained that the service centre was closed as his staff were attending his grandfather’s funeral, adding that a notice about the closure was posted on the main door.

“Therefore, the PAS leader’s actions either show that he can’t read Malay or that he deliberately wanted to create a malicious perception,” Sim said in a statement after Zaharudin’s aborted serving of the letter.

Sim also responded to Zaharudin’s demand for an apology with a pantun, and reiterated his readiness to face a court battle despite not finding any letter of demand left behind at the time.

Zaharudin had courted widespread backlash over his now-deleted Facebook post, in which he penned a hypothetical scenario set in 2058 where a Chinese individual from Kampung Sungai Baru - now a Malay enclave - is appointed as Malaysia’s 50th prime minister.

He also attached a screenshot of a news article regarding the armed forces’ promotion of Malacca-born Johnny Lim from major general to lieutenant general but insisted there was no link between the two.

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