KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Umno-backed Utusan Malaysia published claims today that the ruling party’s bloggers were trapped by DAP into starting a smear campaign against Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud in publishing photographs of her purportedly in a bikini which turned out to be that of a Filipino actress.

According to a political analyst named Shen Yee Aun, a faction in DAP aligned to the Lim family had allegedly spread the photograph of Filipino actress Pauleen Luna in a two-piece swimsuit through the Red Bean Army (RBA).

RBA is the moniker used by Utusan Malaysia to refer to an alleged online operation of cybertroopers supposedly funded by the DAP. The DAP had previously laughed off the claim by pointing out it did not have the funds to finance such an operation.

“They planned to find a photo of Dyana Sofya that is similar to a Filipino celebrity who is Pauleen Luna and spread it to Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters through RBA’s machinery,” the article said.

“In the end, BN supporters who were lacking in social media strategy were trapped, by commanding their members to spread Dyana Sofya’s fake photo.”

He provided no evidence to substantiate the claim.

Shen pointed out that news portal Malaysiakini and unnamed RBA sites were quick to point out that it was Luna in the photograph instead of Dyana, and that would not be possible if the move was not planned earlier.

“Now all the media, blogger, RBA and even The Star newspaper reported widely how malicious BN was to disgrace Dyana Sofya,” it said.

“This was a double-edged technique by first manufacturing a slander to disrupt BN’s credibility, causing the public to give vote and sympathy towards Dyana Sofya.”

Many online users who pointed out that Dyana was not the woman in the photograph had used Google’s reverse image search, where one can easily upload a picture and find out instantly where else it has been published online.

In a bid to shed its image as a predominantly Chinese party, DAP has picked a young Malay woman, Dyana, as its candidate for the by-election in Teluk Intan, a Chinese-majority constituency.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng announced the candidacy of 26-year-old Dyana, who is also political secretary to party veteran Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP operation centre for the parliamentary by-election here yesterday.

The Teluk Intan by-election, which is scheduled on May 31, was triggered after DAP MP Seah Leong Peng recently died from cancer.

In the May 5 general election last year, Seah defeated BN’s Mah with a 7,313-vote majority.

The voter base in Teluk Intan is 42 per cent Chinese and 38 per cent Malay and 19 per cent Indian.