RAJA Petra Kamarudin’s implicit derogatory reference to Ambiga Sreenevasan in a blog post has been slammed by civil society organisations and political parties.

The groups, which include Sisters In Islam, Women’s Aid Organisation and Suara Rakyat Malaysia, led by PKR Wanita vice-chief G. Sivamalar, lodged a report over the matter at the Petaling Jaya police headquarters today.

In the post, titled “The tale of Indian and white women”, Raja Petra wrote about two women “colluding to oust the prime minister of a country that they say is going bankrupt”, seemingly in a reference to Ambiga and Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown.

“If this Indian woman were back in India, she would probably be working in a brothel pimping children for a living,” he wrote.

“Yet, she condemns her adopted country and does not say a word about the appalling conditions in her own mother country.”

He wrote that the white woman had been asked to show proof of her allegation that the prime minister had bribed the president of an Islamist party for RM90 million.

“But she could not. Instead, she told the court the Indian woman was the one who told her the story.

“When the media asked the Indian woman, she replied ‘no comment’.”

Rewcastle-Brown had named Ambiga as an informant on the alleged transfer of RM90 million to the PAS leadership from Najib Razak.

The editor now faces a suit by PAS, which has been filed in the UK.

Sivamalar said the post, uploaded on Malaysia Today yesterday, could hurt race relations in the country, as well as sour ties between Malaysia and India.

Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, who was present at the police station, said the veiled attack against Ambiga was akin to “political assassination”.

“Just because Ambiga has a different point of view or criticises the government, it does not mean she can be insulted in such a way,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality, in a statement, condemned the “sexist and racist” harassment.

“A recent blog post had implicitly referred to Ambiga as a ‘pendatang’ and associated her with prostitution.

“These statements are a great disrespect towards women and the Indian Malaysian community.”

It urged “all parties to stop silencing women human rights defenders”, saying “such harassment reflects a broader pattern of violence against women in our society”.

Ambiga yesterday hit out at those urging her to “come clean” over her role as informant to Rewcastle-Brown.

She said they could be held for contempt, and that since the suit was filed in the UK, it was “in the UK court that any requests, or demands, for documents or information must be made”. – November 3, 2017.