Akmal holds country to ransom while Anwar keeps silent

Akmal holds country to ransom while Anwar keeps silent

Mariam Mokhtar
Published: Mar 23, 2024


COMMENT | Why did it take so long for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to break his silence about the socks scandal?

As prime minister, he lacked leadership and failed to nip the socks issue in the bud. Instead, he allowed the publicity-seeking firebrand, Umno Youth chief Akmal Saleh, to create chaos and disturb the peace.

Why didn’t Anwar intervene earlier? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that both men claim to defend Islam and be the spokesperson for Malays.

One will shout loudest that he is willing to lose his position for defending Islam, while the other maintains a long silence because he does not want to be seen as stopping Akmal (above), the self-proclaimed “defender of Islam”.

Anwar only broke his silence on March 20, more than a week after the socks issue first surfaced.

During this crucial period, KK Mart was accused of deliberately insulting Islam, threats were made to torch a factory in Batu Pahat and endanger lives, the personal details of the factory owner were leaked, and ordinary citizens were doxxed and threatened by vigilante groups.

KK Mart workers were verbally assaulted and KK Mart’s owner, KK Chai, was threatened with a “stronger” boycott, despite his apologies.

It was a field day for the authorities. Egged on by the royalty, more KK Mart stores were raided, fines were issued, and possible closures were expected.

Akmal is the perfect candidate to replace the odious Jamal Yunos, the former Red Shirts leader and former division head of Umno-Baru in Sungai Besar.

Like Jamal, Akmal too, likes to court controversy. Both behave as if they want to deliberately create unrest and harm our peaceful, though fragile, co-existence.

Many law-abiding and rational Malays will agree with me that we do not need the hotheaded Akmal to speak for us.

He may want others to think he is ensuring the sanctity of Islam, but all he is doing is simply climbing the greasy pole of politics. He probably has higher ambitions in politics and what better way to achieve that than by toying with the 2Rs (race and religion)?


Manipulating the population

It is child’s play to blame the non-Malays for insulting Islam in the holy month of Ramadan. The non-Malays know they cannot fight back.

Akmal wants power and he knows he can get that by manipulating the population. By blaming the non-Malays for their insensitivity, he has a ready-made audience of many gullible Malays.

The hotheaded Umno-Baru Youth leader is deluded if he thinks he is preserving Malay dignity. Conversely, his actions have only brought shame to the Malay community. He knows nothing about the spirit of Ramadan, of peace, forgiveness, patience, humility, and tolerance.

Akmal is an embarrassment to the nation and Zahid Hamidi had poor judgement when he asked Akmal to resolve the socks issue.

The Malay politicians who are aware that Akmal is clueless about nation-building, say nothing. They do not want to be tarred with the same brush of being ‘anti-Islam’ for criticising his tactics.

Did Akmal not think it strange, that only five pairs of socks were discovered out of the several scores of thousands of pairs of socks on sale? Instead of giving sufficient time for a thorough police investigation, Akmal allowed the situation to escalate.

Did it ever cross his mind that an element of sabotage was a distinct possibility? The Edge Malaysia reported last May that KK Mart was considering going public on Bursa Malaysia. Was this a case of business rivalry?

Perhaps this was an attempt by a person, or persons unknown, to spread disharmony during Ramadan. Every year in the run-up to Hari Raya, there is always some issue with the halal status of popular raya food items.

In the past, it was Golden Churn butter affecting the sale of kek lapis and other Raya cakes. Or restaurant chain Secret Recipe falling foul of Jakim’s halal requirements. Non-Malay businesses probably wish Ramadan was over quickly.

Did Akmal put himself in the shoes of KK Mart’s owner? Why would KK Chai with his decades of business experience risk his business empire, reputation, workers’ livelihoods, and community relations by deliberately stocking shelves with socks imprinted with the word Allah?

Let’s cast our minds to a few years ago. What did Akmal say about corruption in high office? What did he say about the convicted felon, Najib Abdul Razak and 1MDB? What did he say about Muhyiddin Yassin and the Jana Wibawa corruption scandal?

A few days ago, it was revealed that a Johor Umno-Baru youth leader allegedly sexually assaulted several teenage boys. Why is Akmal quiet about this sex scandal?

Anwar cannot escape scot-free. When he returned from Germany, he accused Malaysians of failing to focus on the economy and investments.

He expressed disappointment that Malaysians liked to squabble over bak kut teh and school canteens, and harped on trivia as if these were life-and-death issues affecting our dignity.

Anwar is wrong to blame Malaysians. We did not bring those issues up. Politicians did.

We want investments and the economy revived.

Ironically, Akmal is the worst advertisement for attracting both local and foreign investors.

Raids, vigilante groups, closures, threats to burn factories and exposing people’s personal details are not conducive to trade and business.

Get a grip, Anwar, and put your house in order.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, X.