Ridhuan Tee hints return to his hometown to contest in Teluk Intan come GE16, “fight incumbent infidel”

 

FOR the better or worse, Muslim convert preacher Ridhuan Tee Abdullah has probably made his political ambition open for the first time with an insinuation of unseating DAP deputy chairman Nga Kor Ming who is currently the Teluk Intan MP during the forthcoming 16th General Election (GE16).

This follows a one-liner Facebook post by the Muafakat Nassioal deputy president that “am feeling like returning to my hometown whereby my school used to be near Teluk Intan to take on that ultra kiasu harbi (his moniker to attack non-Muslim political enemies)”.

Apparently, his statement received immediately thumbs-up from supporters who encouraged him to continue harbouring such ambition, even claiming that Malay voters there would give him strong support.

Some described Teluk Intan as a suitable parliamentary constituency – given he is a Perakian by virtue of being born in Bagan Datuk which is just 35km away – as opposed to his opponent who spent the first dozen years of his life in Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan.

Editor’s Note: According to MyCensus 2020 shared by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), Bumiputera make up 49.9% of Teluk Intan’s 103.065 population with Chinese (32.6%) and Indians (16.9%).

“99% of Malays in the Teluk Intan parliamentary constituency will definitely accord their strong support,” cheered a Teluk Intan resident with another mocked that “the 1% who doesn’t support belongs to the munafik (hypocritical) Malay faction of liberal PH (Pakatan Harapan)”.

The more pious of commenters in the post that amassed 13.3K likes, 1.3K comments and 245 shares at the time of writing reckoned that “God has already touched his (Ridhuan’s) heart starting with pure feeling and intention”

Mission of de-throning DAP

Amid negative reception from detractors who poked fun at his desire, one fan from Taiping even rallied Ridhuan who has been with Muafakat Nasional since joining its supreme council on December 15, 2022 to march forward with the likelihood of “being the first Malaysian PM of Chinese origin”.

Well, nothing is impossible in politics give DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke could lose in his defence of the Chennah seat a fourth time during the recent Negeri Sembilan state election, observed one commenter from Ipoh while another attributed Nga’s previous victory to “Malay votes having split four ways”.

Interestingly, the reception towards Ridhuan’s election debut attracted cynicism on the FB post by political platform Unofficial Info who reiterated that “for now, it’s still just a hint without any official announcement that he’ll be a candidate for any party”.

“But one thing seems clear. GE16 is not even close, Ridhuan Tee has already started looking for a platform,” added the poster with an insinuation that the former Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) professor who was previously tied to the Institute for Research on Product and Malay-Islamic Civilisation (INSPIRE) – could only be testing the waters doing so for clickbait’s sake.

Here even his so-called brethren albeit from presumably the Madani faction teased Ridhuan for “being lustful to be a wakil rakyat”.

“Have doors to earn a living shut on you? Make sure you don’t lose your deposit,” jibed one Johorean commenter with fans of the preacher quickly backing him up as daring to speak up in the quest to defend Islam and preserving Muslim brotherhood.

Another commenter chided Ridhuan for calling his enemies with the derogatory “ultra-kiasu harbi” label when in fact he “possesses the most kiasu attitude”.

“He has for years embraced Islam for decades (since age 20; he’s now 61) but still doesn’t understand moderation,” jibed the Sarawakian netizen. 

 - Focus Malaysia