Khairy Jamaluddin is the latest person who has a police report lodged against him simply for voicing out his opinion.
In his “Keluar Sekejap” podcast, Khairy was speaking about the Najib addendum, and while he was speaking about it, he remarked that ministers Dr Zaliha Mustafa and Azalina Othman Said should speak up on the purported royal addendum allowing former prime minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.
He said they should speak up, because in his point of view, considering that Zaliha is the federal territories minister who has a role in the Federal Territories Pardons Board, “she must have known about it ( the addendum)”.
As for Azalina, he said that she must have also been informed about the order as the law and institutional reform minister, “through her relationship with the attorney-general”.
“There was no way the AG didn’t inform the law minister.
“As a former minister, I know the AG has a relationship with the law minister,” Khairy said, adding that while the attorney-general technically reports to the prime minister, “communication with the law minister is essential”.
In response to what Khairy said, Suraya Yaacob, a political secretary to Azalina has lodged a police report against former Umno leader Khairy Jamaluddin for claiming that the law and institutional reform minister had conspired to “hide” an addendum to a pardon order for Najib Razak.
She said that Khairy’s alleged statement was not only false, but had also smeared Azalina’s image.
Khairy is but the latest edition of a growing number of people who have either had a police report or a threat of libel, slander, intimidation or defamation thrown at them, for merely voicing their opinion, about a public figure.
Politicians, by the way, are probably the only class of people who will sue or lodge a police report against someone for having an opinion about them, when they themselves are the ones who expend an extraordinary amount of resources, time and effort to get the public to have an opinion about them.
It is not the case as if a politician was just trying to mind their own business and not get into the radar of people’s attention, but it is the people who refused to leave them alone and relentlessly poked their nose into the politician’s affair.
It is actually politicians that relentlessly refuse to leave people alone and do whatever they can to force their way into the people’s attention.
But the irony of it all is that after they have done all that they can to get your attention, when you give them the attention that they seek, by giving them your opinion of them, there is a chance that they might not like the attention that you give them, and make it seem as if you have done them wrong by giving them your opinion of them, as if they had done nothing to court your opinion or attention.
If Azalina was working in a company instead of being a minister, and someone had opined that she must know about a document, although she claims she has no knowledge of it, it is doubtful as to whether she would have gone to the trouble of lodging a police report over it. If she was not a minister, but a CEO or director of a company, she would probably just leave it to the person who accused her of knowing something that she claims she had no knowledge of, to lodge a police report, if they want anything to be done about their opinion. But because she is a politician, rather than just leave it to the person to lodge a police report against her if they want any action to be taken against her, she is lodging a police report against that person instead, to stop them from having an opinion.
This, by the way, only occurs if you give an opinion that the politician does not appreciate. If you give an opinion that is favourable to the politician, even if the opinion is patently preposterous, you won’t have to fear getting sued or having police reports lodged against you.
From this we can clearly see that when a politician lodges a police report or threatens to sue someone, they are likely not doing it in defence of the truth or the facts. If they were so concerned about the truth or the facts, they should sue someone or lodge a police report against them, even if the person said something favourable of them, if what they said is not truthful or factual.
That they are only suing or making police reports against people for having unflattering opinions about them, but are absolutely fine if people were to have a flattering opinion of them, is a clear sign that it is just their image, rather than the truth or the facts, that the politicians are chiefly concerned about.
They are likely just suing or making police reports against people for voicing out unflattering views about them, as a means of manipulating public opinion in their favour. They are most likely taking active measures to suppress or attenuate any negative opinion that anyone has about them, while promoting only the good and flattering opinions that others have of them, to perpetuate a positive image of themselves in the public sphere.
That being the case, perhaps these politicians should just tell everyone what is it that they want to be said about them, instead of making it seem that we are free to have any opinion of them, but then ask the authorities to take action against us, when the opinion that we have of them does not meet their approval.
How are we supposed to know what opinion that makes a politician happy?
If you tell a wise person what you think of them, they would be happy regardless of whether they agree with your opinion or not. If you are right, even if your view of them is unpleasant, a wise person will appreciate it as an opportunity to correct themselves. If you are wrong, on the other hand, it will give them the chance to cultivate virtues like patience and forbearance, which is what made them wise in the first place.
A fool however, will only be happy if you tell them they are right, even if they are wrong. Even if you tell a fool that he is on a precipice and will fall if he doesn’t watch where he is going, he is apt to think that you are jealous of him going forward or envious of what he has or disturbing his peace, and proceed to lodge half a dozen police reports against you.
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