Marina to take legal action against Isma
SIS’ Marina Mahathir is initiating legal action against Isma to put the record straight as to where she stands with Comango.
K Pragalath, FMT
Sisters in Islam (SIS) board member Marina Mahathir will be sending a letter of demand to Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) soon to retract their accusations; but she was short of revealing when the letter will be sent.
“My lawyers will be sending out letter of demand first with time frame. If they don’t comply, then we go to the next step,” she said in an email correspondence.
When asked when the letter would be sent, the social activist said, “soon.”
Isma accused her of being the mastermind behind a coalition of local human rights organisations called Coalition of Malaysian NGOs (Comango) since she is SIS’ board member and SIS is part of Comango.
On Nov 8, Isma distributed 70,000 leaflets in mosques all over the country claiming that Comango was attempting to undermine Islam.
Isma said Comango did that by calling for the removal of Malay privileges, freedom to leave the Islamic faith, and championing rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
They named Bersih 2.0 co-chair S Ambiga and Marina as being part of Comango.
Last month, Comango submitted its report on the state of human rights during United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Isma also attended the session along with government agencies and Muslim NGOs to defend the government’s stand on these issues.
Marina in return warned Isma to retract their accusations or face legal suit three days later.
Yesterday, Marina in an open letter reiterated that Isma was spreading lies about her.
“I was indeed well aware that SIS is a part of Comango and was certainly well aware of the report Comango was preparing for the UPR process.
“But I never attended any meetings nor was personally involved in the production of the report, which is only one of the 28 NGO reports on human rights in Malaysia,” she said.
