Rosmah's aide has selective amnesia, says Yeo

Damansara Utama assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin has described the prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor's aide Rizal Mansor as having "selective amnesia".

This was after Rizal claimed Yeo and other DAP leaders who visited Permata last October were satisfied and that critics of the early childhood programme should consult the delegation on their experience.

"He seems to have selective memory on what we discussed during the several public exchanges we had on Permata.

During the visit, we made it clear that Permata's programmes need to be under full ministries, especially the Women's Ministry, instead of under the Prime Minister's Department (PMD)," Yeo said in a statement today.

Yeo said her stance was consistent with Pakatan Harapan's position.

Rizal (photo) had made reference to Yeo in response to a statement from Harapan yesterday calling for the PMD's funding to be slashed by abolishing Permata, the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) and Biro Tatanegara (BTN).

In Permata's case, PKR's Saifuddin Nasution, DAP's Liew Chin Tong and Parti Amanah Negara's Khalid Samad, in their joint statement, called for its funding to be brought under the Education Ministry.

Yeo said the government should seriously consider the suggestions of her Harapan colleagues.

"Such suggestions should be seriously considered by Putrajaya so that taxpayers' monies will be spent more efficiently, with more coordinated strategies and operations on early childhood education.

"All in all, we see no reason why the programmes currently run by Permata cannot be run by the full ministries, which surely have more experience and expertise than PMD in early childhood education.

"Perhaps Rizal's over-eagerness in defending Permata under the PMD is for the reason other than the benefit of Malaysian children?" she said.

Yeo said that during the visit to Permata last year, she had also requested to see Permata's accounts and Rizal asked her to write to the auditor-general.

"However, the auditor-general replied to us to say that the accounts have been returned to Permata and it was only right that we ask for the account from Permata.

"We wrote again to Permata to ask for the account, to which we received a reply on Jan 10, 2017, saying that there is no need for them to disclose the accounts.

"We seemed to be have been kicked around without a proper reply from Permata. Perhaps Datuk Rizal Mansor can shed light on this?" Yeo said.

Yesterday, Rizal criticised Harapan for proposing Permata's abolition under the PMD and relocation to the Education Ministry, stating that the needy deserve affordable and quality early childhood education.

In an immediate reaction to Yeo's statement today, Rizal said that the assemblyperson and DAP elected representatives should have listened carefully to previous explanations by Permata on the matter.

Else, he said that previous briefings to them are just the same as talking to "tiang kayu", or wooden posts.

"The issue raised has been explained numerous times by Permata representatives on the limitations of an act of Parliament.

"Did the rakyat choose tiang kayu to represent them?" he sniped.- Mkini