BUKIT Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari today denied he is the man in photographs that show him being intimate with a woman resembling DAP’s former candidate for the Teluk Intan by-election Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

In a brief text message, Zairil, who is DAP national assistant publicity secretary, said it was “clearly another attempt to malign him with personal attacks”. He also said the pictures were fake.

DAP officials said it was a campaign against its two young Malay members to tar their image as Muslims and discourage other Malays from joining the party.

Party leaders have been reluctant to comment or say what the party leadership planned to do about the photos or their two colleagues linked to them.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, when pressed for comments this afternoon, declined to say anything.

“Not on this occasion,” the Penang chief minister told The Malaysian Insight after a press conference at Komtar.

DAP vice-chairman M. Kulasegaran also declined to comment.

“It’s a personal matter, so how can I comment? I also have not spoken or seen him (Zairil),” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Teresa Kok, another DAP vice-chairman, said it would be best for Zairil and Dyana to handle the matter.

A party source told The Malaysian Insight that DAP usually did not interfere with the personal affairs of its members.

Yesterday, Dyana denounced the publication of the photos, saying it was the third personal attack against her in two months.

“I assume the general election must be very near,” she said in a Facebook posting, adding that it was a major privacy intrusion into her life.

Dyana said she had no time to entertain the personal and vindictive attacks, as she was busy with work and service to people in Teluk Intan.

The photos that went viral since yesterday evening showed two people resembling Zairil and Dyana together in a restaurant. One photo showed the duo appearing to lock lips, while another showed the woman drinking while the man’s arm was around her.

Social media users had commented that the two people in the photos looked like the two DAP politicians.

There were previously other photos of the same nature and a video of a couple dancing in a club. The man and woman also resembled the DAP duo.

Zairil, who is married, has all along denied he is the man. – April 19, 2017.