SUCH is the reminder by liberal-minded Muslim Nasri Azhar who is correcting his brethren’s flawed logic that the more they criticise Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, the more the Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister would lose support.

On the contrary, the rightist fraternity who recently upped their offensive against the Bintulu MP by labelling him a drunkard and anti-Islam for bulldozing his way to realise the recent Rain Rave Water Music Festival 2026 has forgotten that Tiong is very much respected in Sarawak.

“Wrong! Tiong is a GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) minister who is loved by Sarawakians because he represents the openness of Sarawakians,” jibed the moderate Muslim influencer. “And above all else, almost 66% of the Sarawak population is non-Muslim.”

Nasri went on to caution his brethren that “the conservative Peninsular Malays are seen by the majority of Sarawakians as nothing more than a bunch of annoying, petty troublemakers”.

“The image of the conservative Peninsular Malays is that of ‘villains’ in the eyes of the Sarawakian majority. The opposite of ‘villains’ is ‘good guy’,” he contended.

“The stronger Tiong is criticised by the conservative Peninsular Malays, the more he’s perceived as the ‘good guy’ in the eyes of the majority of Sarawakian voters”.

As such, the brickbats of sorts levelled at the 64-year-old Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president especially pertaining to the Rain Rave 2026 event is beneficial for GPS in that “the majority of Sarawakians are increasingly disgusted with the behaviour of conservative Peninsular Malays”.

“In fact, this development will at the same time provide additional motivation for them (Sarawakians) to remove any elements of Islamofascism from Sarawak,” envisages Nasri.

When GPS wins, they can play the role of kingmaker like after GE15 (15^th General Election). Will GPS voters approve if GPS joins a party bloc that includes PAS or UMNO after GE16? Most likely they will not approve it!
Because they have seen how horribly the conservative Peninsular Malays displayed their Islamofascism “stripes” on the Rain Rave 2026 issue.
It’s actually not so much about the festival issue at all. But it’s an issue about the rakyat’s freedom that the conservative Peninsular Malays are trying to disrupt. In fact, it is symbolic of the hostility between the conservative Peninsular Malays and GPS. – May 7, 2026

Editor’s Note: In the quest to correct claims by detractors that “Nasri Azhar is a fake account of a non-Malay or non-Muslim”, the liberal Muslim who has somehow joins the rank of human rights activist and lawyer Siti Kasim in defending non-Muslims has the following to share:

It seems that there’re still Facebook users who don’t know what the blue mark on the right side of someone’s FB account means.
That’s the Meta Verified (paid) mark. It can’t be subscribed to by fake accounts.
When subscribing to Meta Verified, users must include a MyKad which image is taken through the phone’s rear camera in the FB application itself.
The system prevents the risk of MyKad being uploaded from a ‘soft copy’ or ‘photo copy’.
Then the account name must be the same as the MyKad name by at least two words. This means that the name “Nasri Azhar” is really in the MyKad when registering.
The profile picture must be a real face picture that is the same as the MyKad picture.
After all that is completed, you also need to wait for the authenticity of the identity to be confirmed by Meta.
After approval, only then can FB users apply to change their name and profile picture to another name and picture.
If you want to change your name, it still needs to be the same as at least two words on the MyKad.
All of these are rules for individual Meta Verified accounts while business Meta Verified accounts such as Maybank, Harian Metro, Utusan Online and others have different rules.

Main image credit: Nasri Azhar/Facebook

The post Peninsular Muslims reminded “the more you ‘whack’ Tiong King Sing, the more support he’s garnering” first appeared on Focus Malaysia.