Zam’s ‘royalty’ dig at Najib and Rosmah riles her aide

Rizal Mansor reminds Zainuddin Maidin how he was critical of royalty once when he was editor of Utusan Malaysia.

PETALING JAYA: A remark passed by Zainuddin Maidin that royalty was required in the country to prevent Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife from becoming king and queen, has ruffled the feathers of Rosmah Mansor’s aide who shot back at the former Information Minister.

According to a report on Malaysiakini, Rizal retorted, “A former Utusan (Malaysia) editor and cabinet minister said the monarchy has to block the prime minister from becoming a king.

“Has he forgotten what he did when he was in Utusan?

“Maybe he has, but we haven’t (forgotten) every day he criticised and gave negative perception of the royalty,” said Rizal.

He was most likely referring to reports published by the Malay daily from 1992-1993 of two separate assault cases involving the Sultan of Johor and his son, Abdul Majid Idris, on a hockey coach that culminated in the stripping of immunity of rulers from prosecution. Both cases made local and international headlines and came to be known as the “Gomez incident”.

Commenting on how Zainuddin was looking at royalty in a favourable light now, he said, “Now he suddenly wants to be a hero defending the royal institution, look back at which administration respected and was most friendly with the royals.

“This is the same person who can’t differentiate between elections and erection,” he said, mocking Zainuddin for a slip of the tongue in 2007 when he was information minister.

Zainuddin, like former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been critical of Najib, taking to his blog on a regular basis to voice his disapproval of the Prime Minister. Yesterday’s posting was on the subject of the Sultan of Johor cautioning Putrajaya against downplaying the troubles afflicting the nation.