YOURSAY | ‘In your suing of MP Awang Hashim, you do yourself no favours at all.'

Anwar hauls Pendang MP to court for alleged defamation

Vijay47: Bad show, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, an extremely poor show. You appear to have embarked on a “Destruction of Image” binge, an objective that seems to have been accomplished with great success and matching fanfare.

I bear no torch for almost any member of the Opposition but in your suing of MP Awang Hashim, you do yourself no favours at all.

So, what great crime against you did he commit? That he allegedly described you as being more vindictive than former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad and that your appointment as prime minister was questionable under the law?

For heaven’s sake, Anwar Ibrahim, you are the prime minister and it comes with the turf that opinions others could hold towards you may be uncomplimentary or even unsavoury. So, who do you think you are, some latter-day Michael Jackson worthy only of eternal praises and adulation?

Your response is truly regrettable. A mature political leader of your standing would have chosen to ignore Awang Hashim or reply to him with just a silent smile. Instead, you seem to have gone berserk in the manner you managed this, yes, triviality.

Prime ministers and presidents get savaged and praised as circumstances dictate and you should have taken both in stride. Ironically, your court action authenticates Awang Hashim’s opinion!

If I, once your avid supporter am not mistaken when you ascended to premiership you gave a lofty assurance that unfavourable comments about you would be viewed as what comes naturally with the post. So, what happened? Does another promise bite the dust?

Anon25: Good arguments Vijay47, and as usual well-articulated. But in this case, because the purported offender is a PAS ulama, there is a positive side to this lawsuit.

It will suggest to PAS supporters, pious Muslims, that Awang Hashim could be committing a sin by falsely claiming that the PM, also a pious Muslim, is a vicious man. This is fitnah (slander).

Awang could claim in his defence that it was just his private opinion. But no. Since he chose to go public with his remarks, I think there is justification to argue that there was malice intended.

This may be a correctly calculated move. I support Anwar.

GreenKoala4364: To many educated Malaysians, once a person speaks words, phrases, or statements but is unable to support his claims or accusations, he is either lying or brainlessly talking.

It's very unfortunate that it comes from a person of PAS, a religious political party that possessed vast Islamic teaching but acted like a wild and uneducated person.

To me, it's very unwise to link politics with religion. Politic emphasises entrusted power to politicians to deliver mass interest, and effective methods to uphold society's progress, fairness and justice. Once religion seeps in, destined to be unfair because we are a multi-religious and multi-racial society.

Religion is personal belief with the force, of individual choice for his own life course. So, when you mix individual choice together with mass choice based on any one religion would ultimately produce chaos, conflicts and irreconcilable goals.

So, one must choose a political system that lives beyond religion and race to unite the citizens towards common goals without compromising on individual belief, action, and practice of choices of religion.

Siva1967: This is a good development on the part of the PM. Loose cannons especially on the other side of the aisle should be made known that they should be careful what they say and one wrong unsupported statement will invite legal actions such as this.

Earlier a certain person also uttered some silly statement toward our PMX and later retracted and apologize. Thereafter his son, try to justify that his father apologised to “give face” to our PMX where it was once again retracted.

PMX was magnanimous to accept the apology and move forward. This shows maturity on the part of our PM. This will set the precedent for the rest to only debate on the subject and stop them from stooping low by resorting to personal attacks and fabricated lies without basis or evidence or verified data.

Anyone uttering, statement(s) that has no basis such as the recent statement by the MP from Marang, saying that only 60 percent of Malays voted and 90 percent of non-Malays voted is detrimental to the future of the Malays in Malaysia.

If data from the Election Commission can prove or support that the opposite is more accurate, legal action should be taken swiftly for spreading such lies. Such legal or disciplinary actions are important because it’s misrepresentations.

Furthermore, irresponsible statements such as this can create uncertainty in the country and for the hears of the uninformed, it would be taken as the truth.

This in turn could be fodder for some to react in such a way that could turn ugly. What is more, when the medieval military-type Himpit 2023 (Himpunan Pemuda Islam Terengganu) programme was organised during the same period.

When people in power and position are irresponsible, the country can go into ruins. Like what Uncle Ben said in the Spiderman movie. “With great powers comes great responsibility”

Man on the Silver Mountain: So far Anwar’s action is consistent. He would not tolerate personal disparaging criticism against him. Obviously, this is his choice. As a human being, this is the right thing to do if you are unhappy that someone is making false statements against you.

He is not a saint who would offer the other cheek, so to speak. Bring it to court, and let the court decides. It is within his right in his personal capacity. He is not using his PM privilege, if any, in fighting back against his accusers, which could be an abuse of power.

Basically, by suing his detractors, Anwar is drawing a line. Hopefully, he maintains his consistency so that any potential accusers will know what to expect.

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