Kedah MB’s aide cries foul over attacks on his boss by netizens

 

The aide says menteri besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor thought it was okay to just sit beside the salesman for a test drive around the area.

ALOR SETAR: An aide to Kedah menteri besar (MB) Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor today said his boss had wrongly interpreted the law when he took part in a test drive of a pick-up truck at the height of the MCO in Penang last month.

Muhamad Mat Yakim, Sanusi’s press secretary, said the MB had thought that merely sitting on the front passenger seat while being driven around by a salesman around the Juru Auto City area was not wrong.

“At that time, to his understanding, sitting by the side of the driver was not an offence. In other words, he did not realise that what he did was against the law,” Muhammad said in a statement.

He said the MCO SOPs were also vague about test drives, when there was just a ban on car showrooms opening, leaving a grey area.

Muhamad Mat Yakim.

Muhamad also said netizens’ claims that Sanusi had crossed state lines without a valid reason was also false because as an elected rep, he was exempt from travel permits during the MCO for official business.

Sanusi had previously explained that he had chanced upon a Ford salesman parking a new Raptor pick-up while stopping at a RM2 shop for bread and water on his way to a meeting in Kuala Lumpur with two other aides.

Muhamad said the MB had left it to the authorities to decide whether he was wrong or not from day one and as a law-abiding citizen, he paid the RM1,500 fine as soon as it was served on him last Sunday.

Muhamad said it was not right for netizens to conclude that Sanusi was not a law-abiding person, adding that some people have begun a smear campaign against the MB.

“This is character assassination of a person who has showed stellar achievements in less than a year, with tens of billions in investments pouring into Kedah ever since.

“What is going on now is an attempt to close his success stories by zooming in on an unintentional mistake. He has already paid his penalty for that.

On June 5, a woman took to Facebook saying she spotted the MB and his two aides test driving a RM211,000 pick-up truck at Juru Auto City. - FMT