OPINION | What Links Mahathir, an Acid Attack on a Football Player and a Broad Daylight Assault on a Journalist ?
27 Nov 2025 • 11:30 AM MYT
TheRealNehruism
An award-winning Newswav creator, Bebas News columnist & ex-FMT columnist
Image credit: Straits Times / Malaysian Gazette
What is the connection between a football player who had acid splashed on him and a journalist who was assaulted in broad daylight? If there is no connection, why did Mahathir link both of these incidents to promulgate the idea that violence against critics is rising?
"We are seeing violent acts. A football player (Faisal Halim) was splashed with acid. This never happened before. Why would anyone do such a thing to a football player?
“Recently we saw someone who expressed his views about the state of the country and for some reason he was attacked by two individuals and they even took a video of it,” Mahathir observed.
According to the police, the assault on Haresh was likely motivated by personal reasons. Haresh himself dismisses the observation by the police.
“I would like to ask: whose personal issue is at play here? I want to reiterate that I do not have personal issues with anyone,” Haresh said during a podcast.
“What are the suspect’s personal issues with me?
“As a journalist, I am supposed to be writing news, not become the news. But what happened was the exact opposite,” he added, to dismiss that the attacks he suffered were due to his personal issues.
Also, if the attack on Haresh was a due to personal issue, why did it draw condemnation from so many organisations, including Persatuan Penulis Berbilang Bahasa (PEN Malaysia), which described it as an attempt to silence a journalist reporting on matters of public interest?
Even more unusually, why did the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) issue a statement condemning the attack, asserting that journalists play an “important role in the national sports ecosystem”?
Is this normal practice?
No — it is not.
FAM does not routinely release statements every time a journalist is harmed. The reaction was swift, defensive, and revealing.
As I have mentioned previously, I think it is about time that we admit tha that there is an elephant in the room in the matter of the FAM heritage-player fraud scandal.
How do I know there is an elephant in the room?
I know because all of us know.
From Mahathir to the man on the street, we all know that something bigger, heavier, and far more dangerous is at play here. We all know because it is it impossible for everything that has happened - be it how 7 football players were given Malaysian citizenship in a matter of months although they had zero connection to Malaysia and how the scandal requirement cooperation and collusion of multiple parties from the Registration department to FAM to international agencies- to have happened without something powerful moving the pieces behind the scenes
We can all see the elephant. We can all understand that to resolve this scandal we must first acknowledge that the elephant exists.
But somehow, like the Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, no one wants to be the first to say the say the name of "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named".
The Link That Everyone Recognises — but Nobody Dares Articulate
On the surface, Faisal Halim’s acid attack and Haresh Deol’s assault are unrelated.
One is a football player, another is a journalist. Both probably might not even have met, or they likely don't even know each other well even if they had met.
But Malaysians don’t speak only in facts.
Ours is likely less of modern, open or transparent country than what we purport ourselves to be , where speaking straightforwardly about the facts at hand is enough to make us all understand what is going on.
Rather, ours is likely a shadowy and secretive country - where much of what matters occurs behind the scenes and much of what occurs behind the scenes is dangerous to be spoken of openly.
Because of that, we have learned to trust our instincts, speaks in whispers and understand the quiet logic of survival.
And the public instinct is this:
- Like Mahathir has said, the public also likely believes that both the attack on the Selangor football player Faisal Halim and sports journalist Haresh Deol likely originated from the same source.
- That source is a powerful source whose power crosses institutions.
It is a source that is so powerful that no one — not the police, not politicians, not journalists — dares to name it publicly.
This is why Mahathir linked Faisal and Haresh.
Not because the cases are connected by scandal, but because they are connected by impunity.
When Mahathir said:
- a footballer was splashed with acid,
- a journalist was beaten while a third man filmed,
- and critics now fear retaliation,
he was placing two events within the same moral universe — a universe where violence is used to silence, intimidate, and send a message.
He did not explain the connection.
He merely pointed at the smoke and allowed Malaysians to imagine the fire.
Because we already know.
The Roundabout Language of Fear
Look at how organisations have responded:
- PEN Malaysia spoke of “silencing journalists”.
- FAM condemned “violence and intimidation”.
- NGOs referenced “declining norms”.
- Politicians referenced “powerful individuals”.
Each statement is a coded admission that something is deeply wrong.
But each statement avoids the only question that truly matters:
Who is commanding this fear?
Why does a national football star get burned with acid?
Why does a veteran journalist investigating misconduct get beaten by men who calmly record the act?
Why are police explanations so quick, so confident, so unconvincing?
Why does everyone condemn the violence
but nobody discusses the actor behind it?
Is it because everyone is afraid that to say the name is to risk becoming the next target?
The Public Has Already Solved the Puzzle
Go to any mamak stall and listen.
People will tell you:
“He has that kind of power.”
“Of course he can do it.”
“Don’t say too loud.”
“You know who lah.”
They are not guessing.
They are reading the signs.
They are connecting dots that official institutions pretend are separate.
In Malaysia, we may not always know the details,
but we always know the hierarchy.
We understand who moves freely,
who acts with impunity,
who believes the laws of the country are decorative — not binding.
And the public’s verdict is clear:
These two attacks, different as they are, cast the same shadow.
The Silence That Protects the Elephant
The most frightening part of this story is not the violence itself.
It is the silence that follows.
Not a natural silence, but a cultivated one —
the kind that grows when people know that speaking openly comes with consequences.
And so the elephant remains.
Huge.
Heavy.
Untouched.
Unspoken.
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Politicians talk about “governance”.
Journalists talk about “patterns”.
Officials talk about “personal motives”.
But the public talks — quietly — about the man whose name cannot be printed.
We Cannot Remove What We Cannot Name
And so we remain trapped in the same shrinking room,
stepping around the same enormous creature,
pretending not to hear the floorboards groaning under its weight.
A society cannot defeat what it refuses to acknowledge.
A scandal cannot be solved if its source remains invisible.
Violence cannot be confronted if its architect is untouchable.
Until someone dares to name the elephant —
the one behind Faisal’s acid bath
and Haresh’s humiliation —
the country will continue tiptoeing around it,
speaking in metaphors and implications,
hoping the room does not collapse.
Because deep down, all of us know:
Two separate attacks should not share one shadow.
But in Malaysia today, they do.
And though no one says it, everyone knows whose shadow it is.
***
Nehru matey, why don't you name the elephant, wakakaka
Image source,EPA
Image source,Reuters
Image source,Reuters
Image source,EPA
Image source,Reuters
