Around a year ago, Umno Youth Chief Akmal Saleh mocked Seputeh MP Teresa Kok as a “Nyonya tua” when they disagreed on a matter related to halal certification.
Kok, who was then the DAP vice-chairman, sent a letter of demand threatening to sue Akmal for RM25 million if he did not comply with her demands, which included an apology and a retraction of his remarks. Akmal, however, replied that he would see her in court.
I don’t know whether Kok went through with her legal threat, but it doesn’t seem that Akmal has been particularly cowed by the altercation.
I say so because recently, in response to a 59-year-old hardware store owner flying the national flag upside down, Akmal posted a video on his Facebook page and gave prosecutors two days to charge the man — failing which he said he would “teach this ‘ah pek’ (uncle) how to correctly put up a flag” himself.
Whether or not it was because of Akmal’s ultimatum, police have since arrested the 59-year-old in Penang for the upside-down Jalur Gemilang.
If you thought that with the arrest this little kerfuffle would be over, hold your horses.
I call it a little kerfuffle because I genuinely believe the incident was the result of a mistake.
The hardware shop owner said he was measuring the length of an iron pole while hanging the flag and did not notice it was upside down. Once he realised the mistake, he immediately rectified it. Not only that — he apologised for the blunder and lodged a report at the Kepala Batas police station to explain what happened.
Even National Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang recently opined that the incident was most likely unintentional. Despite that, the man still found himself under arrest.
We have probably not heard the last of this, because yesterday, in defence of the hapless hardware store owner, Siti Kasim spoke up and referred to Akmal as an “Umno Gollum” — in reference to the Lord of the Rings character obsessed with obtaining the ring of power.
Siti Kasim seems to see the same traits in Akmal: an obsession with turning everything into a racial issue.
She also contended that the hardware store owner was being singled out because of his ethnicity, and questioned why the authorities did not take equally swift action when similar incidents occurred — most notably when one happened within the Education Ministry.
Of all the things Siti said, her “Umno Gollum” jab stands out. It’s hard to imagine Akmal taking that lying down. If he fires back, it’s equally hard to imagine Siti backing off.
If both double down on the name-calling, will we see a new norm where political discourse in Malaysia becomes a battlefield of personal insults?
We already have “walanon” and “walaun” being thrown around to ridicule political opponents. Now we have “nyonya tua,” “ah pek,” and “Gollum.”
If this continues, name-calling may well become a standard feature of our politics.
And we shouldn’t dismiss the value of name-calling in politics. Donald Trump rose from a political outsider to the most powerful man in the world partly on the strength of his insult game. By branding opponents “Sleepy Joe,” “Low Energy Jeb,” “Pocahontas,” and “Crooked Hillary,” Trump dismantled them one by one on his way to the presidency.
Politics, after all, is a competitive field that attracts people who want to win. If it’s possible to win by name-calling, I have no doubt our politicians will use it without hesitation.
So, let’s see what Akmal does in response to Siti Kasim’s “Gollum” label. If he fires back, and she fires back again, and they keep at it until one emerges a clear winner, we may soon be looking at name-calling as a permanent fixture in Malaysian politics.
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