Parliament was abuzz last Monday (June 24) after a Perikatan Nasional lawmaker had labelled PM Anwar Ibrahim’s Madani government "Lembu Kenyang!"
To the uninitiated, it’s a Malay expression said to have its origins in Kelantan that uses the analogy of a cow resting (relaxing) with its stomach “full”, so much so it wouldn't care less about the happenings around it; obviously he was likening it to the current government which he portrayed as being unwilling to listen to the voice of the rakyat while being oblivious to their sufferings.
The brouhaha started after PM Anwar had earlier explained in the august house about the recently implemented targeted diesel subsidy scheme which has courted controversy and which has been met with brickbats from the opposition.
A visibly upset Dr Radzi Jidin the MP for Putrajaya while debating the issue had accused the unity government of having become insensitive and unaware of the grouses and grumblings on the ground.
According to him, the Madani government was only good at pushing through its plans without first finding out about the hardships experienced by the people, especially those affected by the removal of the blanket subsidy of diesel in the country.
Radzi, a former Senior Minister in charge of Education during PN’s rule also went on to express his disappointment with the government for ignoring the plight of farmers who had to bear the higher cost of diesel for their equipments, backhoes and excavators.
The outburst from the opposition MP must have been a blow to PM Anwar who already has his hands full dealing with another “hot potato” - the privatisation of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) where around 30% of the stake is to be held by a company owned by the fund management giant BlackRock, said to be an Israel supporter.
Earlier, Radzi did not spare the country’s economy minister either, lashing out at him for rolling out schemes like PADU without fully understanding the people’s plight; he also recalled how Anwar had promised to bring down the price of petrol once he was elected but instead now the price of diesel has been increased.
Incidentally, the Putrajaya MP also ignored calls from a government MP to stop using the “cow” word as it may be deemed to be offensive and uttered with ill intent; however he pressed on until finally a puzzled Speaker Johari Abdul cut short his harangue and asked him to clarify what the mysterious “lembu kenyang” actually meant.
For the record, this was not the first time the Bersatu leader had seemed to have lost his cool with PMX; in September 2023, he was ejected from the Dewan Rakyat by the same Speaker after a prolonged “shouting match” with government MPs.
Back then, Radzi was furious with PM Anwar for allegedly uttering false accusations by implicating him with corrupt practices committed during PN's rule for which he had demanded the latter to retract his words.
Meanwhile, coming back to “lembu kenyang”, Malay idioms and expressions are quite popular in the country although the one that the Bersatu MP who hails from Kelantan had dished out must have been a novelty to many; probably it was the rare occasion where the word “lembu” was heard reverberating inside the hallowed parliament hall - although the word katak (frog) may have been heard before!
Anyway, all these might remind some of the other popular saying which should ring a bell to many people here - “seperti kera kena belacan.” Given the behaviour of MPs from both sides of the aisle, don't bet against it that one day this expression may pop up and spark an uproar in the parliament.
Information Source: Berita Harian, Facebook Radzi Jidin and NST
JK Joseph is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
