ZARA Qairina Mahathir’s mother told the Coroner’s Court that she had never stopped her daughter from contacting or seeing her father, Mahathir Mohd Hashim.
Noraidah Lamat, 46, said that while Zara was living with her, the girl kept in touch with Mahathir through phone calls and WhatsApp.
She said that when Zara was about six years old in 2018, she was already able to record voice messages and send WhatsApp messages to her father herself.
During the Movement Control Order (MCO) in 2021, Noraidah provided Zara with a mobile phone, making it easier for Mahathir to contact his daughter at any time.
“Zara frequently contacted Mahathir to discuss her studies and other matters she wanted to share. Based on what I heard and knew, Mahathir treated Zara well,” she said while reading her witness statement before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.
Noraidah said the last time Zara met her father face-to-face before the incident was in October 2019, when she was in Year One and seven years old.
After that, she said, Zara and Mahathir continued communicating through WhatsApp.
“I never stopped Zara from contacting or seeing her father,” she said.
According to Noraidah, Zara was used to her father working outside Sipitang and never questioned Mahathir’s absence from home as it had been the norm since she was young.
She said Zara had also never complained to her or expressed dissatisfaction about her father.
Zara also had a good relationship with her paternal grandparents, who often visited her and invited her to their home in Sipitang.
