Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s senior political secretary Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin has demanded news portal MalaysiaNow retract an article linking him to a man who posted a “prayer” calling for PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s death.
Although the man, known as Zaki Yamani, used to serve as PKR Youth secretary when Shamsul (above) led the wing in 2007, the latter stressed that “it has no relevance to the current situation or any official capacity.”
“I urge MalaysiaNow to retract claims that the individual (Zaki) is linked to me and the Prime Minister’s Department.
“The allegations (linking Shamsul to Zaki) are highly inappropriate and have no basis,” he said in a statement.
Shamsul also divulged that he has contacted Hadi’s family, through the latter’s son, to find out about the Marang MP’s health.
“On behalf of the prime minister and the Prime Minister’s Office, we pray for Hadi’s speedy recovery and hope that visitations could be arranged when his condition stabilises.”
Earlier yesterday, Anwar called for Zaki to apologise for the latter’s social media post about Hadi’s health.
That came after Zaki posted a prayer on Twitter calling for Hadi’s death. The PAS president had been in hospital after his health started to deteriorate since Hari Raya Haji.
In Zaki’s tweet, he also asked for the death of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Hadi was discharged from Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital, Terengganu at around 2pm yesterday.
Following Zaki’s tweets, MalaysiaNow published an article titled “Aide to PM’s pols sec calls for death of Hadi, Mahathir”.
In the article, the portal alleged that Zaki was Shamsul’s aide and uploaded such tweets “in a sign of the campaign for the upcoming state elections taking on a nasty tone.”
Meanwhile, Zaki clarified that he was not an aide to any political secretary to the prime minister.
Unlawfully blocked?
He also took a swipe at the portal, saying “MalaysiaNow is known for spreading slander.”
MalaysiaNow has since changed the aforementioned article’s title to “PKR man calls for death of Hadi, Mahathir”.
However, the article still cited Zaki as Shamsul's aide.
On Wednesday, MalaysiaNow was inaccessible to some users, specifically those using Celcom and Maxis, and was likely blocked by local internet service providers.
The portal’s editor Abdar Rahman Koya said they did not find any sign of unusual activities or cyberattacks on their servers - which left them with the possibility that their site was blocked.
In an immediate response, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said he did not issue any directive to block any news websites.
The alleged block came a day after the portal published a report alleging that Fahmi, on a live stream he hosted, threatened critics with police action.
On Thursday, the partial “block” on the portal appeared to have been lifted. - Mkini
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