PPBM, Syed Saddiq turn up heat on DAP and Hew

The education ministry has stopped the circulation of the comic book in schools.

PETALING JAYA: Members of PPBM and DAP have squared off against each other in a controversy over a comic book produced by former DAP firebrand “Superman” Hew Kuan Yau, who came under a personal attack from PPBM Youth leader Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

Syed Saddiq repeated his 2016 remark that Hew “is a Super Stupid Superman” for saying the South China Sea belonged to China, thus insulting Malaysia’s sovereignty. “Now he says the Malays who support the Uighurs are ‘radicals’. If this is not racism, I don’t know what is,” Syed Saddiq said in a Facebook posting.

Later in the evening, PPBM Youth ticked off a DAP grassroots group, which included five state assemblymen, for making a “rude” attack on Education Minister Maszlee Malik, a PPBM member.

Maszlee has ordered that the controversial comic book “Belt and Road Initiative for Win Winism” be withdrawn from schools, an action that led the DAP grassroots group to question whether Maszlee was a minister appointed by PH or by Umno.

PPBM Youth communications chief Ulya Aqamah Husamudin.

PPBM Youth’s chief of communications Ulya Aqamah Husamudin said the education minister had acted properly by stopping the distribution of the comic book in schools.

“The comic book contains controversial elements and is not suitable to be distributed in schools. Even the home ministry has called the artist and the publisher for investigation,” Ulya told FMT.

Ulya said the comic book contained propaganda by glorifying China, while giving the wrong perspective about the Malays and Islam. It was a threat to racial sensitivities.

“There’s no room for rudeness and selfishness which threatens Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Malaysia’s harmony,” he noted.

“The book also misused (Prime Minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s image for promotional purposes,” he said.

Mahathir was featured in a photograph with China’s President Xi Jinping as Xi takes a look at the comic book at a Belt and Road Initiative forum held in Beijing in April.

Ulya said DAP leaders should discipline the so-called grassroots members who had attacked their own ministers. He said PPBM Youth would lodge a police report for investigations on the publisher and artist to be carried out.

The statement by 43 DAP grassroots leaders was also signed by assemblymen Phoong Jin Zhe ( Luyang), Chiong Yoke Kong (Tanah Rata), Chow Yu Hui (Tras), Lee Chin Chen (Bilut) and Leong Yu Man (Triang).

The statement was sponsored by DAP national youth secretary Eric Teh and DAP Selangor deputy youth leader Koo Jeng Teng. - FMT