YOUTH and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has sparked an open debate among netizens of both political divides when she posed a pertinent question: “What is the logic of this Perikatan Nasional (PN)/PAS leader that even Aidilfitri needs to be politicised?!”
Instead of rendering moral support to the “Malaysia Madani Aidilfitri Open House” event which will be hosted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, there are surprisingly quite a handful of netizens who questioned rationale of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman throwing open houses only at the six states that will be facing state polls come July/August this year.
Muhammad Danial (@DANIALRAMLI33) fired the first salvo by laying out five questions that need to be answered:
“Has this been done by the previous PM? Is this more cost-effective than one national level open house? Why the focus on six states that will be having state polls?” queried the netizen.
“Why not all states in Malaysia? Can we have similar programme for CNY (Chinese New Year) and Deepavali?”
It seems that the fifth question struck the chord – and in fact was the darndest – for it triggered a bombshell from netizen iss (@Bro27051976) who claimed to be someone apolitical.
“I couldn’t give a damn to politics but what’s the logic of having up to six open houses which is something unprecedented,” he lambasted. “I challenge YB (Yeoh) to request PM Anwar for six CNY open houses in six states next year … we no longer have any state election by then.”
The motion was quickly seconded by netizen Hanna Dhiaulhaq (@greatanep) who further reminded “don’t forget to ask PMX (Anwar) to organise open houses in conjunction with CNY and Deepavali in six states. Fair and square”.
Elsewhere, netizen Dinesh Nair (@alphaque) also took a swipe at the unity government by claiming that it was the latter who initiate the politicising “by holding the open houses only in states facing an upcoming election, thus turning them into thinly disguised campaign events?”
“What’s your opinion on taxpayer funds being used for electioneering?” he asked Yeoh.
NURULHUDA MD YUNUSL (@NurulhudaYunus) wondered who the unity government is trying to kid by throwing open houses only at the six states that are facing election. “Isn’t that indirectly implying a political agenda? The people can think,” she added.
On the hindsight, David Wong (@davidwong27) was one of the few netizens who opined that the Malaysia Madani open houses are putting the opposition in a tight spot.
“Looks like they are truly scared now! Even Hari Raya open houses can scare the shit out of the,” he quipped.
“The open houses are endlessly politicised! PAS/PN are lacking confidence to get strong support from voters in their states till they are so scared to the point of being delirium and shivering … good for the unity government!” – April 27, 2023
