PERAK PAS chief Razman Zakaria has a controversial history marked by numerous libellous statements that have landed him in court. He has been charged and fined multiple times for his remarks.
The most recent instance of Razman’s inflammatory speech was one targeted at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. However, Razman issued an apology to Anwar in the Taiping High Court on Thursday (Feb 9).
Despite his attempt at making amends, Razman’s apology has not been well-received by the public. Netizens, in particular, are taking to Twitter to mock and criticise his apology.
For context, Anwar’s suit against Razman is related to the latter’s speech which is alleged to have linked the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman with the perverse agenda of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT).
The Gunung Semanggol state assemblyman who is also the sole defendant made an unconditional and unreserved apology before Judicial Commissioner Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin at the Taiping High Court for his speech made on Nov 19 – the day of the 15th General Election (GE15) – that had offended and slandered Anwar.
Netizens are pointing out that this is not the first time the Opposition leader of the Perak state assembly is dragged to court for making slanderous remarks.
They were commenting on a tweet by DAP’s Buntong MP Thulsi Manogaran (@thulsimanogaran) who revealed: “FYI, this is his third time (Razman is) losing a defamation suit against a PH leader – first was with (former Perak Menteri Besar) Datuk Nizar (Jamaluddin), then (DAP chairman) Lim Guan Eng and now with our PMX (Anwar).”
Netizen Tiada Nama Hanya Kata (@ShoibZahari) in a reply to Thulsi’s tweet, said “it’s been the 10th time” that Razman has been engaged in a court proceeding while describing the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition in which PAS is a component party as “Pemfitnah (slanderer) Nasional”
Another netizen Hassan Ahmad (@winyoda) suggested that PAS should one day set up Akademi Fitnah (literally Slander Academy) to produce specialists in the art of slandering. “I am just thinking out of the box,”’ he quipped.
Claiming that Razman’s action was a disgrace as he leveraged lies and slander to uphold the teachings of Islam, ARM27 (@raze2762_harman) advised the PAS leader to “chuck aside his turban and white kopiah (Muslim cap)”.
Netizen Jeremy (@haikal1511) labelled Razman as an unrepeated lebai (devout Muslim) who is willing to “eat, sleep, slander and repeat the whole process again” while pankajkumar (@happypankaj) opined that people like Razman “will defame others time and again just to swing votes”.
“They don’t care. After all, (their) objective is to win elections. If slapped with defamation suit, simply apologise lah.”
Saya (@faizalyahya) summed up best when he suggested that Anwar should have proceed with the legal suit. “Now with no one to ‘provide’ the funds, they will seek forgiveness. If they cannot pay throw them in jail,” he added.
To cite some other cases, the Sessions Court had in 2017 ordered Razman to pay RM200,000 to Nizar who was the Changkat Jering state assemblyman in relation to a defamation suit filed by the latter in 2015.
Last year, the High Court ordered Razman to pay RM250,000 in damages to Guan Eng and make a public apology regarding one of his Facebook (FB) posts that was deemed defamatory.
Razman had earlier on Nov 18, 2017 in another FB post defamed Guan Eng by accusing the latter as having supported the ban on hotel workers wearing headscarves during his then capacity as Penang’s chief minister. – Feb 11, 2023
