Hannah gives statement to cops over ‘Jom Ziarah’ programme, calls for ‘crazy’ allegations to stop

March 21, 2023

Hannah gives statement to cops over ‘Jom Ziarah’ programme, calls for ‘crazy’ allegations to stop

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — Facing a police investigation over the now cancelled “Jom Ziarah Gereja” programme, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has called for a stop to allegations that threaten national harmony.

Speaking to the press before entering the Sentul police headquarters to give her statement today, Yeoh said that she would be giving her full cooperation to the police to bring the investigation to an end as soon as possible.

“I think there is a boundary in political attacks, and there is a line that you cannot cross when you threaten harmony in this nation,” she said.

“Every day, you read new allegations coming… there must be a stop to these kinds of crazy allegations,” she added.

Yeoh was referring to the latest claim from Bersatu’s Badrul Hisham Shaharin — better known as Chegubard — that there is a conspiracy to cover up wrongdoings by Yeoh.

To note, last Monday, Yeoh made a police report against Chegubard on the allegations he made regarding the programme, while Chegubard made a report against the minister three days later.

Malaysiakini reported earlier today that Badrul said his conspiracy claim was based on the race of the inspectors involved, with the report against him put under a Chinese inspector while the report against Yeoh was handed to an Indian inspector.

The DAP MP was present at the police headquarters today with her lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo.

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She said she had not waited for the police to call her up and had come to give her a statement of her own volition after reading news that the police were investigating her because she did not want to waste any time.

Yeoh added that she has already clarified the matter in Parliament and her statements throughout the debacle have been consistent.

Jom Ziarah Gereja is Malay for “Let’s visit a church”.

Yeoh has said that it was part of a string of programmes under the Jom Ziarah initiative — which was run by Impact Integrated, an agency affiliated with Yeoh’s ministry — that was meant to bring participants to visit various places of worship.

Yeoh had clarified that no Muslims were involved in the programme, and that a visit to a mosque was organised on March 4 and a visit to a gurdwara on March 11.

However, Chegubard accused her of using the programme to proselytise Christianity to Muslim youths.