BEING provocative and controversial will not get caretaker Kedah menteri besar (MB) Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor very far in politics.
But local politicians in the likes of Sanusi appear to be happy to stay provocative so that they are in the news – whether for the right or wrong reasons. They are least perturbed that they are losing their own credibility as leaders who can set good examples for the younger ones.
Sanusi may not realise it but his criticisms against the Sultan of Selangor is a very serious one as the Conference of Rulers and the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) have time and again cautioned politicians not to play the 3R (race, religion and royalty) cards.
If anything, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) election director will now have to face the Sedition case alone, especially since an apology was not accepted by the Sultan which is already indicative of what may come for Sanusi.
To make matters worse, Central PAS Committee member Datuk Awang Hashim has called this a lesson to be learnt by all quarters.
The Pendang MP had told Malay Mail that Sanusi “went overboard, it’s normal and he has apologised, but we have a law and the legal process (has to take place) it is a lesson for all of us, not (only) for Sanusi but for all Malaysians.”
For anyone to hail Sanusi’s heroics or to regard him as “the people’s champ” is a suicidal political attempt since nobody wins when fighting the Sultan – whether now or during Hang Tuah’s era.
When Sanusi was brought before the Selayang Sessions Court recently, none of the PN top brass was prepared to risk their reputation to stand in solidarity with Sanusi. This weakens Sanusi’s argument that his arrest was a form of political persecution.
To-date, PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang has not made any comment about Sanusi’s arrest while PN chairman, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin knows the seriousness of the act of criticising a Malay ruler. Even PN’s information chief Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali is keeping mum.
They know that their stakes are very high in the event that they become the country’s future Prime Minister (PM) or the MB.
In fact, Sanusi’s refutation of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razarudin Husain’s claim that he had refused to answer phone calls made to him prior to his 3am arrest on July 18 simply does not hold water.
By saying that he was in communication with an unnamed police officer from Bukit Aman between 10pm on Monday (July 17) and 2am the next day, does not carry any weight at all.
It is public knowledge that there are different police officers in charge of different cases – and in secret missions – they are not necessarily in communication with each other.
In fact, this is the same reason why former Home Minister and Bersatu secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin’s argument that it did not make sense for the police to arrest Sanusi when one of their personnel was serving as the PAS warlord’s bodyguard, rings hollow.
The police officer could have asked Sanusi’s bodyguard about the caretaker MB’s whereabouts after all attempts to contact Sanusi directly had failed. In all possibilities, the officer was unlikely to be a top brass officer who had access to officers from other units; he or she could merely be carrying out a task.
It will not be known for now if the police bodyguard had in fact tried to inform Sanusi – but thanks to Hamzah – an important question has to be asked why instead of answering the phone calls directly, Sanusi chose to contact another police officer at Bukit Aman, urging the police not to arrest him?
Sanusi’s explanation is therefore weak – very weak to say the least! The police can – without hesitation – provide the list of calls made to the few phone numbers that went unanswered. This would be unnecessary because Sanusi’s own explanation does not deal with the top cop’s explanation.
With all due respect, Sanusi should be aware that of the four who criticised him in August 2021 – at least one of them was a 61-year-old senior citizen who was taken from his home in Negri Sembilan at 3.57am.
Sanusi had then cracked an insensitive joke to reporters by asking them “to sign up to get into containers for the COVID-19 dead,” but after receiving brickbats from the public, decided to apologise.
Sanusi is reaping what he did to others – and when he himself is arrested – others will not even sympathise him even if he turned into the ‘mother hen’ in the proverbial telur sebiji, riuh sekampung (a single egg, an entire village in uproar). – July 20, 2023
