Netizens poke fun at Zahid after his dismissal of slap threat by protesters
Netizens are having a field day poking fun at Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's dismissal of an assault threat on DAP MP Teresa Kok.
Disappointed and angered by Zahid's statement, in which he said there was no need to investigate the reward offer by a group to anyone who slaps Kok, netizens took to micro-blogging site Twitter to mock him.
“Zahid Hamidi says reward for slapping Teresa Kok isn’t a threat... After this, a lot of people are going to get slaps!!!” said Twitter user @nurislah.
Another user @zakhamid3 said, “New culture. Let us offer slaps to our leaders. Ha ha ha”.
On Thursday, a group calling itself the "Council of Islamic NGOs" slaughtered two chickens and offered a RM1,200 reward to anyone who dared to slap Kok as a sign of anger towards opposition leaders for allegedly insulting the Malay leadership and Islam.
The focus of the group was Kok and her Chinese New Year greeting video, entitled "Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014”. They later smeared the blood of the chickens on a banner featuring photographs of Kok and other DAP leaders.
Earlier today, Zahid, when met by The Malaysian Insider, questioned the need for the police to probe the protesters.
"Why do we need to investigate that? Slapping is not a threat. If they say murder, then it is a threat," he said, adding action would only be taken if the act were carried out.
Responding to this, some cheeky Twitter users such as @slaveration said, “Zahid Hamidi come over here and let me slap you”.
“Is it possible if I want to slap Zahid Hamidi’s face for free? Is it a threat against him? Don’t arrest me for intimidation,” tweeted @aimanhkim.
Meanwhile, The Malaysian Insider has been inundated with comments from readers hitting out at Zahid.
“So, anyone can also offer $5,000 to slap Zahid and expect no police action?” posted a reader using the nickname "stewoolf".
Some were quick to recall the assault case involving Zahid, in which he was sued by businessman Amir Bazli Abdullah for allegedly punching him in the face.
“Homeland gangsta: ‘I've punched someone blue and black and gotten way with it... So what's a little slap?’” commented "englim" on The Malaysian Insider, referring to the court case, which was dismissed last month after Amir's lawyer Karpal Singh said his client had gone missing.
Saying there was no need to look into the slap reward, Zahid instead said his ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission were probing Kok over her Chinese New Year video, after receiving over 300 police reports.
Police yesterday said that they have begun investigations into the threat against Kok and have classified the case under Section 505(c) for public mischief with intent to incite anyone to commit any offence against others, as well as Section 506 for criminal intimidation. – February 8, 2014.