Tuesday, March 05, 2024

‘Grow up’, KJ tells Anwar, Muhyiddin over name-calling


FMT:

‘Grow up’, KJ tells Anwar, Muhyiddin over name-calling


The former health minister says the prime minister and the Perikatan Nasional chairman are in their 70s and are not children.

04 Mar 2024, 8:37pm



(From left) Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said Anwar Ibrahim and Muhyiddin Yassin should halt the name-calling as it could lead to harsher insults later on.


PETALING JAYA: A former minister has hit out at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin for resorting to name-calling when taking their political opponents to task, telling them to “grow up”.

Khairy Jamaluddin said terms such as “madanon” and “walaun” were both despicable and derogatory.

The former Umno Youth chief, who was the health minister under Muhyiddin’s government, said such labels could lead to harsher insults like “khawarij”, in referring to the theme of a sermon at mosques nationwide last Friday.

“Khawarij” is used to describe Muslims who hold extremist views or carry out acts of violence towards other Muslims.




Khairy said both Anwar and Muhyiddin are not children, noting that they are in their 70s.

“Muhyiddin and Anwar are grandfathers, yet they still resort to calling their rivals ‘walaun’ and ‘madanon’.

“Come on, grow up, guys,” he said in the latest episode of the “Keluar Sekejap” podcast that he co-hosts with former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan.

Muhyiddin had used the term “madanon” at the recent Bersatu extraordinary general meeting.

The term is commonly used by PN supporters to describe those who support Anwar’s administration, which has adopted the slogan “Malaysia Madani”.

It is a combination of the term “madani” with “Bang Non”, the pet name Anwar’s family used to refer to him.

Last April, Anwar had used the term “walaun” against his critics at a dialogue with university students. The term is used to refer to hardcore supporters.

Separately, Khairy proposed that the health ministry ban the display of cigarettes on sale at shops and introduce plain packaging for cigarettes.

He said such a ban would ensure that cigarettes were not visible in convenience stores, adding that cigarettes should be “out of sight”.

Plain packaging meanwhile meant that the cigarette brands are not shown, a practice which is adopted in some countries.

“So, if you lose the generational endgame (GEG) bill to Big Tobacco, you strike back with plain packaging and a display ban,” he said, referring to the largest companies in the tobacco industry.

“ I know Big Tobacco hates this idea.”

Last year, the provision to ban the sale of tobacco products and cigarettes to those born after 2007 was removed from a bill to regulate smoking.


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