KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territories Amanah leaders have called on the authorities to take action against two social media users for allegedly defaming deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Aiman Athirah Sabu.

Its communications bureau director Major (Rtd) Razali Zakaria said they were alerted about two posts on Facebook which were defamatory in nature against Aiman Athirah.

"One of the posts had a picture of Aiman Athirah and a can of beer with a super-imposed Amanah logo on it.

"It also had a caption describing her as a child borne from rocket," he said when met outside the Dang Wangi police headquarters on Sunday.

He said the other post also had a picture of Aiman Athirah with sarcastic and defamatory statements linking her to the promotion of alcoholic beverages in schools.

He said such posts were against Section 499 of the Penal Code and Section 3 and Section 5 of the Defamation Act for criminal defamation, broadcast of slanderous statements and slander affecting official, professional, or business reputation respectively.

"As of yesterday (July 20) our checks revealed that none of these posts have been taken down," he said.

Meanwhile Federal Territories Amanah Youth wing secretary Hafizzuddin Razian urged the public to stop spreading defamatory posts on social media.

"The spread of defamation has been detected to be more widespread and previously we have lodged reports against influencers who make defamatory statements on social media.

"Because of that, we want the authorities to take strict action against any party that spreads defamatory statements," he said.

On Friday Aiman Athirah was reported as saying that she was not informed about contributors to the construction of a hall for SJK(C) Tche Min, which allegedly included a beer company.

A post on the Pusat Khidmat Rakyat Parlimen Sepang Facebook page said Aiman Athirah was aware of viral photos showing her, other contributors and a mock cheque for a RM3 million contribution from a beer company at an event at the school.

The post said the MP was invited to a charity concert held by the school as she was one of the contributors to the fund for the construction of a hall for the three-decade-old school.

"Invitations were extended by the school management board to all contributors, including Aiman Athirah, who donated RM100,000," the post read.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/07/1079539/federal-territories-amanah-calls-action-against-defamatory-posts