CALL HIM a thorn in the flesh or a wolf in a sheep’s clothing yet UMNO Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh has excelled as one leader who can resonate with the party’s grassroots even if he has subtly lashed out at the decision of Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul that the six turncoat Bersatu MPs need not have to vacate the seats.

After he chided the decision to allow the six whose memberships were recently revoked by Bersatu to keep their seats as rendering “efforts to pass the Anti-Party Hopping Act in vain” yesterday (July 11), the Merlimau state assemblyman today (July 12) ticked off Pakatan Harapan (PH) Youth for labelling his action as “being disrespectful” to Johari.

“Before respecting the speaker’s decision, what is more important as a leader is to respect the rights of the people to reject political frogs from continuing to destroy the country!” he rebutted in a Facebook post.

“If following this precedent, there are other quarters who similarly wish to express support for others, are we to allow it, too? In the end, the political frog is the one who benefits, the country gets destroyed and the people continue to bear the adverse consequences.”

For context, the six Bersatu MPs are Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (Bukit Gantang), Zahari Kechik (Jeli), Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Gua Musang), Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (Kuala Kangsar), Datuk Zulkafperi Hanafi (Tanjong Karang) and Suhaili Abdul Rahman (Labuan).

Yesterday (July 11), Akmal was hailed as a “principled UMNO Youth chief” by majority of his Facebook commenters for “daring to take a stance in stark contrast to the party’s top leadership” when he claimed that the often preached “political stability” is none other than to serve self-interest.

“Don’t be angry with the people if they start to hate politicians. Have fun destroying the country, my dear political frogs,” he teased.

More broadly, the opposition camp had staged a walk-out from the Dewan Rakyat yesterday (July 11) after expressing disgust with Johari’s decision that the six Bersatu MP who are now backing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim need not vacate their seats despite having been sacked by their party.

In fact, the opposition-slant tendency of the Melaka State Rural Development, Agriculture and Food Security Committee chairman has not gone without notice when one netizen teased that he is “seemingly keener to whack his own team than that of the opposition” to which he replied, “How to say they’re right when they’re wrong”. - July 12. 2024

https://focusmalaysia.my/akmal-saleh-how-can-i-respect-the-dewan-rakyat-speaker-when-political-frogs-continue-to-ravage-the-country/