Despite Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's exhortations of his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's role in securing the release of a Malaysian student detained by Egyptian authorities in 2010, questions remain as her involvement was not evident in international news reports except for articles carried by national news agency Bernama and several local papers.
One such article, part of a series that extolled Rosmah's role in the release, is among the collection listed on the Prime Minister's Office website dedicated to the "Wife of the Prime Minister of Malaysia".
Another article that spoke of her role was published in The Star on Jan 7, 2010, along with others that followed suit. Other papers also published variations of the Bernama article.
Najib had announced this as one of Rosmah's unsung deeds, in response to criticisms over her use of an executive jet paid for by public funds for a non-official trip. He said this during his speech on the last day of the 67th Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 7.
However, Naijb incorrectly said that the student was accused of spying. In fact Malaysian student Ibrahim Mohd Azmi was arrested as part of Egyptian riot police crackdown on the Viva Palestina Lifeline convoy 3 that was awaiting transit into Gaza.
He was taking pictures of riot cops attacking the Viva Palestina convoy volunteers when he was arrested. Egyptian riot police raided the compound the convoy was in after activists demonstrated refusing to exclude 59 non-medical vehicles from their convoy into Gaza.
Ibrahim was one of seven Viva Palestina convoy members detained, while several others were hurt in the raid.
And while the PM boasted that Rosmah's sacrifices for Malaysia, such as her alleged help in securing the release of the student, was rarely mentioned by him, it was curiously plastered all over the local papers.
International diplomatic cables and reports, however, carry a different tune.
The US Embassy in Cairo sent a message to several stations on Jan 11, 2010 describing the event. A copy of the cable can be accessed on the Wikileaks website.
A portion of the cable reads "...the demonstrators had 'detained' two Egyptian police officers in return. Turkish MP Murat Mercan (one of 5 Turkish MPs traveling with the convoy) had mediated a release of the demonstrators and police after a couple of hours."
Similarly, press releases by Viva Palestina credited British MP George Galloway and Turkish MPs, who the movement said "struck a deal with Egyptian authorities, part of this deal was that the 7 detainees were released without charge".
The deal was the release of two Egyptian riot cops captured by the convoy volunteers in return for the release of the volunteers detained without charge and the convoy's agreement to defer the nine vehicles from their trip to Gaza.
The international reports show that negotiations were between Viva Palestina, Turkish and British officials with the Egyptian authorities, no mention of a Rosmah intervention.
It is also strange that no international media picked up on the matter, at least none that theantdaily can at the moment search for online.
It is not known who is stealing whose thunder here but as far as the negotiations went, it is unclear how Rosmah's unofficial links to the wife of former Egyptian dictator Hosny Mubarak, as claimed by Najib, had helped.
Though perhaps The Star article described it best: "She had spoken to Suzanne at 6.15pm yesterday and it is believed that the move contributed to Ibrahim's release."
Ibrahim was released along with other convoy members detained on Jan 7 at about 10pm Malaysian time, which is chronologically just about four hours after Rosmah's supposed call to Suzanne Mubarak.
But local mainstream news coverage of the incident was met with criticism by one member of the convoy Juana Jaafar in her article describing her experience decrying the grandstanding of the PM's spouse in the media over her alleged efforts to help.
An excerpt from her letter To Gaza With Twitter published on Malaysiakini on March 2, 2010 read:
"And if it weren't for statements issued by the prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor about an independent Malaysian student on the convoy who got arrested in Egypt, the Malaysian media would probably have continued to ignore our journey and the Israeli siege on Gaza.
In fact, the news reports focused on Rosmah's personal efforts in trying to help the student and not the more pressing issue that is Egypt's complicity in the Palestinian crisis. It is this kind of selective reporting that has contributed to the dumbing down of the Malaysian public."
In the end, it is a valid question to ask if Rosmah really did help rescue Ibrahim, as details are sketchy. Though if she was involved, bully for her and she deserves congratulations.
But two things remain clear: firstly whatever Najib claimed in his speech at the general assembly, this deed of Rosmah, true or not, is no quiet thing that he does not talk about often to people; it was a full-blown media and public relations circus.
He may not have said much about it but press organs owned by BN (of which he is chairperson) component parties and nationally-controlled media certainly went to town with it.
Indeed, this is not the first time that Rosmah was given diva coverage by local press, often in news reports about her “good deeds” like returning the precious box she found on a luxury yacht to a Saudi prince.
Secondly, I don't think this or any other quiet deed is a licence for her to be accorded facilities paid for by public funds, other than those specifically reserved for her as the wife of the prime minister.
But for her personal trips in unofficial capacity? She should pay her way like all empowered women of our age or if not use the facilities of whatever organisation she represents, not government-owned jets that the rakyat are paying for.
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