Albert Tei Versus PMX

OPINION | Albert Tei Versus PMX


8 Dec 2025 • 8:30 AM MYT


Mihar Dias
A behaviourist by training, a consultant and executive coach by profession

https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei

By Mihar Dias December 2025


In a country where leaders love to lecture us about madani values, compassion, integrity, and all the moral virtues that look good in PowerPoint presentations, it now falls to an ordinary businessman named Albert Tei to remind the nation what courage looks like. https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei


And it certainly doesn’t look like half-masked officers waving pistols in a Puchong living room.


https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei


Albert Tei, to his credit, did not script this as a political thriller. It was written for him the moment armed, masked MACC men smashed into his house.


The man had already revealed evidence implicating the prime minister’s own political secretary in a bribery chain. https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei


If this were a truly functioning democracy, we would be discussing whistleblower protection. Instead, we are debating how many guns are needed to arrest one man who released screenshots and a video.


Yet, Tei walked out six days later—unbroken, unbowed, and very much unwilling to be cowed by the mighty machinery of the state.


That alone deserves applause.


Because in Malaysia today, the real theatre is not Parliament, but the homes of citizens like Tei or Rawther—homes where the government’s moral authority enters through the door not as dialogue but as bullet chambers.


The Anatomy of Fear—Manufactured by the State


Tei’s message to Anwar Ibrahim was disarmingly simple: I am not afraid of you. But don’t touch my family. https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei


That is the sentence that cuts through the fog of political spin, the line that exposes the naked contradiction of this administration.


For all the government’s self-praise about reform, transparency, and human rights, we now have a prime minister who seems to think that the way to silence dissent is to deploy masked men who don’t produce warrants but readily produce firearms. https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei



If these allegations hold, then Anwar’s “madani governance” has graduated from soft intimidation to the hardware variety.


But perhaps this is the new governance model:


When the message is inconvenient, send a message louder than bullets.


Unfortunately for the government, they picked a man who filmed politicians, survived Sabah politics, and apparently refuses to faint at the sight of bad acting—even when the actors are holding guns.


https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei


The Real Fear: When Citizens Stop Being Afraid


Tei’s refusal to be silenced is exactly the kind of behaviour that rattles governments reliant on theatrics of intimidation.


When a citizen who has been slammed to the ground, surrounded by armed men, still walks out shouting lawan tetap lawan, it signals something the administration should fear far more than evidence on a pendrive. https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei



It signals the slow collapse of fear—fear that has traditionally kept Malaysians obedient, compliant, and quiet.


Rawther tried to speak up. Tei is speaking up now.


When ordinary Malaysians begin to realise that the state’s power is only as strong as their silence, the political centre begins to wobble.


This is the part of the movie where a wise leader recalibrates.


But recalibration requires wisdom. But wisdom is painfully absent.


The End Game of Governing by Guns


If pointing pistols at citizens is the new enforcement philosophy, then let’s examine where this road inevitably leads:


• More whistleblowers will flee abroad.


It’s hard to imagine people lining up at Putrajaya to report corruption when they can also expect a home invasion as a bonus.


• MACC’s credibility—already surviving on life support—flatlines.


When CCTV evidence conveniently disappears, the rakyat does not think “professionalism.” They think “cover-up.”


• Anwar’s moral authority evaporates.


The prime minister is already struggling with the narrative that his team is as tainted as those he once condemned. Guns pointed at civilians won’t help him escape comparisons with leaders he once raged against.


• The public begins to ask the unthinkable question:


If this is how they treat someone with evidence, what will they do to the rest of us?


The government’s endgame, if there is one, seems tragically simple:


Threaten enough people, and everyone else will fall in line.


But Malaysia is no longer the Malaysia of 1998. https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2025/12/04/anwar-im-not-afraid-of-you-but-hands-off-my-family-warns-albert-tei


Tei is right about that.


In the age of social media, even a masked raid can’t hide behind its own shadow. Every bruised voice becomes an amplifier. Every intimidation attempt becomes a viral warning shot—not to the whistleblower, but against the government’s own reputation.


Anwar’s Legacy—Written Not by His Pen, but by His Guns


For a man who once claimed to be the victim of state conspiracy, Anwar should be the last person condoning (or appearing to condone) excessive force.


Yet the irony today is almost Shakespearean:


the prisoner of yesterday seems increasingly comfortable with the tools of his former jailors.


Albert Tei may or may not be a perfect man. But perfect men rarely expose imperfect governments.


Today, Tei stands as a reminder that courage does not require titles, political backing, or state machinery. Sometimes it only needs a man, a scandal, and a refusal to stay silent.


So, if Anwar and his administration think that guns, masks, and midnight raids will silence criticism, then they have gravely misunderstood the rakyat’s threshold for fear.


The rakyat may be patient.


We may be polite.


But we are no longer afraid.


Tei’s defiance makes that crystal clear.


For Malaysia’s sake, let’s hope it is a message heard not just by Anwar—but by every man who thinks power comes from a gun instead of the people who placed them in office.

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One reader wrote in, as follows:

ekkf

• 2h

I won't be fooled by the title of this passage. it's Apanama Vs PMX

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