SHIT, EVEN IF IT COMES FROM A 17-YEAR-OLD, IS OK

I KNOW Kelantan's Tengku Fakhry Petra only casually, always meeting him by chance at two nightspots he used to frequent. But he appeared to stop going to those places from about a year ago. Or maybe he had found better clubs, I don't know.

He was unassuming, usually accompanied by a couple of friends and a lone police security detail who kept his distance discreetly. Fakhry seemed like a nice chap, with no airs. But like most young men he too noticed the pretty skirts but would do no more beyond making a quiet observation or two to his friends.

The next thing I knew a few months ago he was suddenly in the news, the accusations coming from Indonesia from a woman named Daisy Fajarina whose daughter Manohara Odelia our Kelantan prince had married. Dragged indirectly into the controversy was the name of our Prime Minister Najib Razak who the press report said had hosted the dinner at which the two young people met.

As usual the (political) sceptics went to town with it -- only because it provided another ammunition with which to fire at Najib.

They are back in the news, again most of it coming from Indonesia with mum and daughter being flavour of the day when Manohara landed in Jakarta after leaving Fakhry behind in Singapore. They said she managed to run away while in Singapore with mum in tow with the help of the Indonesian and American embassies. His version, told by his friend, was that he had willingly allowed her to leave as they were going to divorce anyway.

His version of course is of no interest to the same sceptics who loudly asked everyone to read Manohara's story if they wanted to know the truth. A few of us reminded everyone that there's always two sides to a story and to always bear in mind that she's only 17 and the fact that her mum has also been doing a lot of the talking.

The latest foreign reports padded their dispatches to again link Najib to them and also other issues from the Altantuuya case. She meanwhile was referred to as a socialite. Hmm. Maybe the Indonesian press should dig deeper to ask mum about her husband.....

The first time the story was reported a few months ago I decided to ask a friend who has access both to the Najib camp and the Kelantan palace. While it was true the two met at a dinner but it was one hosted by Indonesian Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, before the start of the economic downturn last year said to be the country's richest man. Najib was there but as a guest while on a visit to Indonesia. Fakhry was in the entourage on the invitation of Najib's wife Rosmah.

Manohara must have been quite a girl. At that time, at the age of 16, she was an item with Aburizal's son and already jet-setting here and there literally, on board the minister's private jet.

But there are gaps here and there, whatever the real story in Kota Baru and Singapore. If Manohara had been abused, including having her chest cut by razor blade, I think the mum could have shown some proof, certainly to the female members of the press. And if mother and daughter were kept in-communicado by Fakhry, how did she know her daughter was going to Singapore? Mum also knew where she was staying.

If everything was not going well in KB itself I don't think Fakhry would have taken her along to Singapore where it would be easier for her to try and run away instead of doing it from Kelantan.
But the sceptics don't want to think because in her story they have something ready-made to laugh at their own country and leader. Never mind if she's only 17 and doesn't seem to be missing school.....