MALAYSIAN politicians have long developed a bad habit of saying what they want and making unverified claims on social media. Sometimes they get away with it, sometimes they don’t.
But one thing’s for sure is that one of them often ends up paying the price, quite literally, in the form of a fine, a public apology or both.
The most recent incident is the Yeo Bee Yin vs Datuk Seri Jamal Md Yunos case. The former Energy, Science, Technology, environment and Climate Change minister Yeo Bee Yin filed a defamation suit against Jamal in June 2017.
This is over the alleged abuse of the Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor (Yawas) fund, and the case recently came to an end with the Umno Sungai Besar division chief publicly apologising to Yeo for the statement that he made.
Another case that comes to mind is the one involving Dr Maszlee Malik and Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki. The former has demanded an apology and compensation from the UMNO Youth chief for claiming that the previous Pakatan Harapan administration had intentionally glorified communists.
Asyraf, on the other hand, claimed that he did not name anyone, much less the former education minister, when urging Putrajaya to correct content he claimed was manipulated in Form 4 history textbooks.
The most obvious lesson from both the aforementioned cases is that politicians and government-appointed officials need be held accountable for their words and actions.
Rather than engaging in double speak, they should say what they mean and choose their words carefully. A bit of research wouldn’t hurt either. Had they done that, things could have ended differently for them. – Mar 6, 2021
Photo credit: Free Malaysia Today
