Editor’s Note: UMNO Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh has been hauled up by the authorities for the second time at the Kota Kinabalu police headquarters at about 2pm today (April 5).
This was after he was detained between 10.30am and 12.30pm today.
News portal Scoop.my reported that Akmal was asked to answer some additional question in his second presence at the KK police headquarters.
The Merlimau state assemblyman then left for Beaufort, about a two-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu, for an iftar (break fast) programme organised by Sabah UMNO Youth.
He is scheduled to return to Kuala Lumpur via a noon flight tomorrow.
FOR those incensed with UMNO Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh’s racial posturing over the KK Super Mart issue, it is tempting to pop the champagne over his short-lived arrest in Kota Kinabalu (KK) today.
The Melaka state executive councillor may have gotten his “comeuppance”, spending a mere two-and-a-half hours at the Kota Kinabalu police headquarters where he was detained upon arriving in the city.
But true to being the master of political theatrics, Dr Akmal wasted no time milking the brief detention to make himself even more popular among his hordes of followers whom he had whipped into a frenzy following the discovery of a pair of socks bearing the “Allah” inscription in a KK Super Mart outlet recently.
Starting with a brief posting on his Facebook at 10.29am today about his detention, he has fired a series of posts that were carefully curated to press the buttons of his followers, making the Russian-trained doctor out to be a political martyr.
He even posted a video of his detention with the caption “No Fear. No Surrender” which has garnered over 50,000 views in three hours, with tens of thousands of comments wishing him well.
There were also other postings about how he was arrested despite having been scheduled to give a statement to the police in Dang Wangi tomorrow, and all this for defending Islam.
With this trajectory, it is without a doubt that Dr Akmal is setting himself out to be a victim of political persecution and a martyr.
Dr Akmal’s brief detention this morning has only emboldened him even more, as he metamorphosed himself into a political beast that is harder to tame than before. Ironically, this is despite earlier calls to detain him, not least from Sarawak Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
Against this backdrop, there is more reason for authorities to remain steadfast in clamping down on agent provocateurs out to reap political mileage at the expense of national unity.
Any action against the likes of Dr Akmal cannot be seen as a slap on the wrist or as a formality to appease certain groups only. The police’s (probably genuine) oversight to allow Dr Akmal to play victim, such as detaining him despite a scheduled police interview tomorrow has only disadvantaged those intent on upholding law and order.
Perhaps given the gravity of the situation, the police should consider using preventive laws, meaning to say, lock up divisive figures and throw away the keys until the situation subsides.
This is in keeping with the King’s decree that there should be no more attempts to incite the people over the KK Super Mart issue. – April 5, 2024
