By Mariam Mokhtar

On August 6, Kedah Menteri Besar (MB) Muhammad Sanusi Mohd Nor joked that people could reserve a place in the steel containers used as temporary morgues in Sungai Petani.

Malaysians reacted with outrage and posted comments on social media. Several arrests were made.

We may think that the authorities are angry with the rakyat for insulting their leaders. The truth is more sinister. They want to discourage the rakyat from censuring their leaders. They do this by harassing, arresting, questioning, and making the critics' lives a living hell.

Sanusi's crass reply was in response to a reporter's question about hospitals in the area being overwhelmed with coronavirus cases and mounting deaths.

The reporter wanted to know if mortuaries were coping.

The MB may have thought his reply was funny, but it was not. It was rude, crude and highly unbecoming of a leader.

At least one other person was heard laughing in the video clip of the press conference. What sort of example is Sanusi setting?

The leader of Kedah lacks leadership. He was insensitive and vacuous. He is supposedly a man of religion, but failed to show any compassion towards the thousands of people who have lost their loved ones during this pandemic.

Several young children have been orphaned. Many others have lost their mothers, or the breadwinners.

Like a pachyderm, Sanusi appears to be immunized against the feelings of the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians whose family members have been infected, or whose lives have been disrupted by the disease.

He should have shown empathy for the victims' family members and tried to comfort them instead of making jokes about them.

The other shocking feature of this sorry episode was that Sanusi's special officer lodged a police report against a 61-year-old man who had made a 9-minute video clip which he uploaded on Facebook, criticizing Sanusi's lack of sensitivity.

The police traced the man to Negeri Sembilan hundreds of miles from Kedah, raided his home at 3.57 am and seized his mobile phone.

He was taken to Sungai Petani, questioned, remanded and later released on police bail.

Two more people were arrested in Alor Setar for mocking Sanusi.

A fourth person, from Taiping, was arrested on the night of August 9 and also taken to Sungai Petani for questioning.

Are these arrests necessary? The men were furious with Sanusi. Could the police not exercise their judgment and refuse to be Sanusi's lapdogs?

The waste of police resources could have been better spent on apprehending real criminals instead of sucking up to the MB.

The PDRM appears to drag its feet when tracing people who allegedly tried to entice opposition MPs to jump from Pakatan to join Mahiaddin Yassin's Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.

However, it can act with the speed tracing Sanusi's critics.

Malaysia is not yet a police state but is fast becoming one, when citizens who are given freedom of speech in the Constitution are arrested for criticizing their leaders.

Criticism does not appear to be a two-way flow in Malaysia. Leaders can insult and belittle the rakyat with impunity, especially when they attack communities from non-Muslim and non-Malay backgrounds.

The more the authorities arrest citizens for making comments that the leaders deem offensive, the more the rakyat will turn against them.

Sanusi claimed that his joke was taken out of context? How?

If he can insult the rakyat, then why can't the rakyat respond to his crassness?

Both the police, Sanusi's aide and Sanusi himself appear to have abused their authority.

The Kuala Muda police chief has sullied his badge by allowing himself to be used to protect the "maruah" of the MB.

The MB claimed that his joke was intended for the group of reporters at the press conference, and was not meant for public consumption.

Sanusi must think he's half MB and half wit. Does he think it is acceptable to insult the reporters?

He said, "I was joking with the journalists who are part of my family, but the joke was taken to be directed to everyone and made viral."

Is he daft or naïve or both? A good reporter writes without fear or favor and writes what he hears or sees.

In June, a woman who had spotted the MB test driving a car, uploaded a film of his failure to observe the coronavirus SOP guidelines.

Sanusi had failed to adhere to the strict rules of lockdown and had been caught red-handed.

Thugs and cybertroopers who support the MB then targeted the woman and her family members, issuing various threats.

Photos of her family members and her husband's business profile were made public.

Why was no stern action taken against these thugs?

If the MB had exercised more self-discipline during the lockdown, and behaved with civility at other times, the rakyat would not have reacted to his aggression and arrogance.

He only apologized for his morgue joke after the rakyat reacted with outrage. Otherwise, he would have thought nothing of it. His apology is insincere.

Source:

1. Malaysiakini: Ex-health deputy DG shocked by Kedah MB's 'joke' amid mounting Covid-19 deaths

2. Malay Mail: Police detain two more people in Alor Setar for criticizing Kedah MB amid double-standards claim

3. The Star: IT analyst nabbed over threatening messages sent to Kedah MB via Facebook

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)