'Playful swat' sign of friendliness - PAS rep defends Sanusi

A Terengganu PAS leader has defended Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor's act of swatting a youth with a piece of paper.

According to Jabi assemblyperson Azman Ibrahim, much "harsher" acts are taken in a lighter manner in different cultures.

"In Iraq, friends swat our heads with shoes, and we are okay with it.

"Different cultures in different places. If in Terengganu, we often hear this dialogue, which is a sign of friendliness: 'Lama dok jupe nnatang ni! Mung gi mane?’ (So long didn't see you, where have you been?)" he tweeted.

It is worth noting that the term nnatang refers to the Malay word binatang (animal), but is often used in light banter between close friends.

Jabi assemblyperson Azman Ibrahim

"Maybe in Kedah, jokingly swatting someone's head with paper is a sign of friendliness," Azman added.

He recalled an instance during his student days at Universiti Malaya in the early 1990s, when the difference in dialect caused a moment of confusion with his roommate from Johor.

"One morning my roommate asked me why I did not make up my bed, and I told him I was 'gaduh sikit' that morning.

"My friend was shocked why I was calling him for a fight for asking such a question," Azman wrote.

While in Malay gaduh means fight, in the Terengganu dialect, it refers to rushing or running short of time.

Backlash

Earlier this week, Sanusi was criticised over a video that showed him hitting a woman on the top of her head with a single folded piece of paper, before everyone broke into laughter.

Sanusi defended his act, saying he was jokingly reprimanding the student for being tardy, by submitting a request for aid just a day before she was due to enter the polytechnic.

Azman courted flak early this year for likening women to items (barang) amid the incident of a woman barred from entering a police station due to her attire.

He later defended the remark, saying his comparison of the situation to "expensive goods" (barang mahal) being packaged nicely was just a figure of speech. - Mkini