#muhyiddin yassin

[head-post]

Malaysia’s former PM ordered to pay $300,000 to politician for defamation

A Malaysian court ordered former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin to pay more than $300,000 to another politician in a defamation case.

Muhyiddin, who was prime minister from 2020-2021, is also charged with sedition for allegedly insulting the former king, as well as corruption and money laundering in separate cases.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court obliged Muhyiddin to pay 1.35 million ringgit ($308,078) in compensation for defamatory statements against former finance minister Lim Guan Eng. The court also ordered Muhyiddin to retract the remarks and imposed an injunction restraining him from repeating the allegations.

However, Muhyiddin said he would appeal but would delete the posts from his social media accounts in line with the court’s ruling. Lim stated on Friday that he was grateful for the court’s decision as the claims against him were false and unfounded.

Muhyiddin claimed that when Lim was minister from 2018 to 2020, he cancelled a tax exemption for a charitable organisation. Lim sued Muhyiddin for allegations of abuse of office.

Read more HERE

[kazifatagar]

Muhyiddin ordered to pay RM1.35 million to Lim Guan Eng

The High Court has ordered Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to pay RM1.35 million in damages to Lim Guan Eng for defamation related to the revocation of Albukhary Foundation’s tax exemption. Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain ruled in Lim’s favor, finding that Muhyiddin failed to verify the accuracy of his statements before posting them on Facebook. Despite having resources to confirm the…

[suara-rakyat-blog]

Kisah menyayat hati seorang atlet triatlit terkemuka yang lumpuh selepas menerima vaksin Pfizer. Hanya beberapa minit selepas menerima suntikan, dia mula mengalami kesukaran bernafas. Sejak itu, keadaannya semakin merosot dengan cepat. Syaratnya jauh dari "selamat dan berkesan." Dia berpotensi menghadapi kecacatan seumur hidup.

[radioshiga]

Ex-premiê da Malásia acusado de sedição contra monarquia

Kuala Lumpur, Malásia, 28 de agosto de 2024 – Agência de Notícias Bernama – O ex-primeiro-ministro e atual líder da oposição da Malásia, Muhyiddin Yassin, foi formalmente acusado de sedição nesta terça-feira (27) por supostamente insultar o ex-rei do país, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, durante um discurso político no início deste mês. Muhyiddin declarou-se inocente das acusações. Segundo seu…

[worldspotlightnews]

Malaysia ex-PM Muhyiddin Yassin set to be charged for corruption - SUCH TV

Muhyiddin Yassin, who was Malaysia’s prime minister as the country locked down over COVID-19, is expected to be charged on Friday with corruption over the alleged diversion of funds to his party. According to international media reports, Muhyiddin went voluntarily for questioning at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Thursday morning in relation to allegations that building…

[chawsl]

[lmaoitsyuuji]

Nah I’d meme

(Do memes (as it is popular in Malaysian politics) provide a useful way of understanding politics?)

Even politics aren’t safe from being ‘meme’d’.

Meme?

The term ‘meme’ (from the Greek word “mimoúmai”, meaning ‘to imitate’) was coined by a British evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book ‘The Selfish Gene’ (Benveniste 2022). A meme is a piece of media that is repurposed to deliver a cultural, social or political expression through humour and can be in the form of a picture or a video.

Quirk: Meme-ify

Memes exists in every social media platform you can think of—Instagram, TikTok, X and even WhatsApp. Do you know what meme format that is popular nowadays? Cat memes >^•-•^<

Cat memes, that had died down in 2010, has risen back from the ashes and are the hype nowadays. Honestly, I laugh at most, if not all, cat memes cause I’m a loser and that’s how I roll.

Behold, the thousand yard cat stare.

When meme meets politics

There seems to be an ongoing trend of people creating memes of political figures/parties in their countries. Trump is likely the most ‘meme’d’ political figure in history—just scrolling through the internet makes that pretty clear!

Political memes have become a common way for people to be exposed to political content and express their political views online (Halversen & E.Weeks 2023). Political memes’ purpose is to make fun of the political state of a country—however, it can educate people about politics as well. It is a good way for information to be spread around as it attracts netizens to engage with political memes. People no longer want to read but prefer to take a few seconds to view a meme and make a simple comment or adjustment to it and resend it to other platforms (Kasirye 2019, p. 45).

“Meme-laysia”

We usually see a surge of new memes online whenever election is around the corner or when a political figure messes up in their job (which they OFTEN do) and Malaysia is no stranger to political memes. In fact, Malaysian netizens strive in creating political memes. The distinguished gentleman above is probably the most well-known ‘meme’ in Malaysia. Memes about him cursing in the Malaysian Parliament garnered attention from locals and foreigners alike—talk about going viral for the wrong reason!

Additionally, memes were used extensively during the 15th General Election in Malaysia across many social media platforms and the influence of memes among young people in the social media sphere succeeded in altering Malaysian politics once more (Mohd Nizah et. al 2024, p.120). Political memes affect Gen-Z voters that participated in the PRU 15 election where over 4.5 million of them are under the age of 21. Memes act as a tool that distils complex political issues, making them more relatable and easier to understand to the younger generations.

Aside from that, there is an example of a popular Malaysian political meme that happens to be about our former Malaysian Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin. To recap everything, Muhyiddin Yassin announced his resignation on August 16, 2021, on live TV after serving only one year in office. This caused confusion amongst Malaysians and they took to social media to share their confused reactions to the news (Lee 2021). You might be asking—what’s wrong with that? You see, the problem about this is that Muhyiddin resigned from being a Prime Minister… to a ‘caretaker’ PM (until there’s a new successor comes). So, he basically resigned from being the Prime Minister of Malaysia… to the Prime Minister of Malaysia. This political issue has birthed many funny memes and here are some memes to prove it:

Source: Mashable SE Asia

Meme-ocracy

Now, do memes (as it is popular in Malaysian politics) provide a useful way of understanding politics? Yes, I do think they provide a useful way for people to understand politics. The younger generations use memes to understand and learn about the political state of Malaysia, especially during elections, as it is easier to consume than traditional news source. Memes simplify complex issues and make them more relatable, helping young people engage with the political landscape in a way that feels more accessible and entertaining. Seeing as how the young generations are becoming voters now, political figures use memes as a political marketing strategy to relate to the younger generations as well as to spread their propaganda to citizens. They also use memes to cope with the current trends of the world and to communicate with the younger generation as memes are less formal, straightforward, humorous and easily comprehended (Nieubuurt 2021).

Thoughts

I do believe people, especially Malaysian citizens, can understand politics through memes. People relate to memes and some memes, even political ones, can be hilarious. I like memes and so should you :).

(773 words)

References

Benveniste, A 2022, The Meaning and History of Memes, The New York Times, viewed 3rd October 2024,

<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/crosswords/what-is-a-meme.html>

Halversen, A & E.Weeks, B 2023, Memeing Politics: Understanding Political Meme Creators, Audiences, and Consequences on Social Media, Sage Journals, viewed 3rd October 2024,

<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051231205588 >

Kasirye, F 2019, The Effectiveness of Political Memes as a Form of Political Participation amongst Millenials in Uganda, pp.44-52, Journal of Education and Social Sciences, Vol. 13, Issue 1, viewed 3rd October 2024

Lee, J 2021, Confused Malaysians make sense of country’s political crisis through memes, Mashable SE Asia, viewed 3rd October 2024,

<https://sea.mashable.com/culture/17175/confused-malaysians-make-sense-of-countrys-political-crisis-through-memes>

Mohd Nizah, MA, Abu Bakar, AR, Zahran, MA & Mohd Mokhtar, MA 2024, The Influence of Political Memes on Political Marketing Strategy in Malaysia, pp. 118-131, Journal of Public Administration and Governance Vol.14, ResearchGate, viewed 3rd October 2024.

Nieubuurt, J 2021, Internet Memes: Leaflet Propaganda of the Digital Age, Frontiers, viewed 3rd October 2024,

<https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.547065/full>

[kwiyoshi]

彡✎ Unpacking Politics, One Meme at a Time

(Do memes (as it is popular in Malaysian politics) provide a useful way of understanding politics?)

Politics: the only arena where you'll find more plot twists, backstabbing, and unexpected surprises than a season finale of your favorite TV show.

We get it – politics can sometimes feel like a maze of jargon and complex issues. However, with the rise of meme culture and its integration into politics, could memes be used to further understand politics and its complexity? (probably).

Behind the Laughs

Before answering the main question, let me hit y'all with some nerd facts about how memes came about. A meme is a cultural informational unit that spreads by imitation. The term, which comes from the Greek word mimema (meaning "imitated"), was coined by a British biologist named Richard Dawkins in 1976 from his work titled "The Selfish Gene" (Rogers 2023). Memes come in a variety of format that ranges from videos to still images.

From LOL to Legislation

In today's day and age of the Internet, memes can be found on all sorts of social media platforms that we use on a daily basis. Whether it be viral videos or yet another funny cat or dog picture like the doge meme. Nowadays, there seems to be an ongoing trend of memes being used in politics. I'm not particularly sure how it is being used, but most of the memes I see about politics are just to poke fun at a specific person or political party.

Now for the million-dollar (or in this case ringgit) question, how did memes suddenly become a thing in the political world? The earliest instance of memes and politics I could find is from the year 2000 during a presidential debate in the United States about then-candidate George W. Bush where he mispronounced the word "internet" as "internets." Four years later, he made the same mistake during a debate with John Kerry when he said, "I hear here’s rumors on the, uh, internets that we’re going to have a draft". After the whole conundrum, the response from netizens was eventful. Thus, making Bush one of the first few political internet memes (Klein 2019).

It seems that after George W. Bush became a trending meme in politics in the United States, I guess you could say he sort of paved the way for birthing memes in politics as we know it today. As far as I know, there are a lot of memes about our politics here in Malaysia that I've come across and it gets pretty entertaining considering how our politics here are.

Meme-laysia

As someone that currently lives in Malaysia, I would say that there are a handful of memes that circulates throughout social media when it is nearing elections or when someone that is part of a political party (or one of our ministers) screws up yet again. The political scene here is quite eventful, to say the least, but that does not mean we cannot laugh about it.

One of the most popular political memes in Malaysia is during 2021 when our then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin suddenly resigned from his position after only being the Prime Minister for one-and-a-half years. As good of a plot twist as this is, Malaysians took to social media to express their confusion and reaction to this news (Lee 2021).

Here is one of the example:

Upon resigning as Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin will assume the role of interim Prime Minister until a new leader, who commands the majority, is identified (Lee 2021).

Humor and Power

Phew. We're finally getting to the most anticipated part. Do memes provide a useful way of understanding politics? My answer to that is, definitely. Based on research conducted by Kasirye (2019), it is found that political memes do have an effect on providing information about politics.

The study also reveals that political parties employ memes to promote, oppose, and criticize various political issues among the populace. Since the majority of messages are created by political parties and actors to further their objectives, memes are spread through social media to reach the targeted political groups.

Due to memes having a visual nature and their ability to grab people's attention, memes are a good foundation to start understanding politics. Thus, memes are a great method for political engagement that appeals to people's cognitive and extrasensory faculties in order to interact with them and shape their opinions. Humor and sarcasm, on the other hand, are used as persuasive strategies in this awareness-raising technique (Kasirye 2019, p. 51).

Final Thoughts and Prayers

Overall, I do think that memes play a part in politics in terms of understanding what is going on or providing useful information. Memes are funny and people like memes due to the fact that they can be on different social media platforms, whether it be in video or picture format.

References

Kasirye, F 2019, 'THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POLITICAL MEMES AS A FORM OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AMONGST MILLENNIALS IN UGANDA', Journal of Education and Social Sciences, vol. 13, issue 1, pp. 50 - 51, viewed 8 October 2023, <https://www.jesoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/KC13_032.pdf>.

Klein, O 2019, The evolution of political internet memes, Kennedy School Review, viewed 8 October 2023, <https://ksr.hkspublications.org/2019/03/11/the-evolution-of-political-internet-memes/>.

Lee, J 2021, Confused Malaysians make sense of country's political crisis through memes, Mashable, viewed 8 October 2023, <https://sea.mashable.com/culture/17175/confused-malaysians-make-sense-of-countrys-political-crisis-through-memes>.

Rogers, K n.d., meme, Britannica, viewed 7 October 2023, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/meme>.

[hiduprakyat]

@staff who do i have to kill to get polls?? muhyiddin yassin???

[zvaigzdelasas]

[SCMP is HK Media]

Of the various appointments, Ahmad Zahid being handed the deputy prime ministership was the most expected among political commentators, even though sceptics warned it would taint Anwar’s administration from the outset.

Ahmad Zahid is widely seen as a close ally of Najib Razak, the ex-leader defeated in 2018 polls and now in jail following a conviction linking him to the 1MDB financial scandal. Ahmad Zahid himself is facing corruption charges of his own for alleged money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Along with Najib, Ahmad Zahid was among a slew of BN officials slapped with corruption charges following the 2018 vote, which Anwar’s PH won under the leadership of elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad.

The PH government collapsed in 2020, following an internal coup backed by Najib, Zahid and other BN heavyweights.

The conservative Malay-Muslim Perikatan Nasional (PN) bloc led by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin opted not to join the unity government, claiming it would be dominated by the Chinese-centric DAP.

2 Dec 22

[warningsine]

Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has been charged with sedition, after allegedly criticizing the country’s previous king in an election campaign speech earlier this month.

Muhyiddin, who led Malaysia from March 2020 to August 2021, appeared yesterday in a court in Gua Musang, in the northeastern state of Kelantan, where he pleaded not guilty. The charge, brought under the colonial-era Sedition Act, carries a fine of up to 5,000 ringgit ($1,150), a prison term of up to three years, or both.

The sedition charge relates to a by-election campaign event in Gua Musang on August 15, when, according to a Nikkei Asia report, Muhyiddin questioned why then-King, Sultan Abdullah of Pahang, did not invite him to form a government after the general election in 2022, despite him securing the support of a majority of the 222-seat parliament. The king eventually chose Anwar Ibrahim to become prime minister.

“I had the support of 115 MPs, but I was not called to form the government,” he reportedly said, adding, “Who was the agong (king) at that time?” Sultan Abdullah, who is from the central state of Pahang, was replaced in January by Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar of Johor.

The 77-year-old’s remarks prompted immediate public outrage and condemnation, including from within the Perikatan Nasional opposition coalition, of which Muhyiddin is the chair.

Such was the backlash that Muhyiddin was forced to issue a statement on August 19 defending his comments. He claimed that his speech was a “factual statement that was not intended to insult the monarchy or contain any seditious tendency.”

The new sedition charge is the least of Muhyiddin’s legal troubles; in March 2023, just four months after the general election, he was also charged with abuse of power charges related to Jana Wibawa, an economic stimulus program for ethnic Malay contractors that was instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors claim that Muhyiddin accepted 232.5 million ringgit ($51.4 million) in bribes for his party Bersatu.

While the Malaysian High Court in August 2023 acquitted Muhyiddin of the abuse of power charges, describing them as “vague, flawed and unfounded,” they were reinstated on appeal in February of this year. He also faces two counts of money laundering in connection with the Jana Wibawa program.

While Anwar’s administration said that it was merely fulfilling the PM’s longstanding promise to tackle corruption, the prime minister’s Malay nationalist opponents have inevitably depicted the charges as a politically motivated witch hunt. In the current polarized environment, it is perhaps inevitable that the sedition charge will be viewed by Muhyiddin partisans in much the same way.

The case is also likely to revive the heated debate about the Malaysian government’s use of colonial-era laws to prevent comments about the “3Rs” – race, religion, and royalty – which it claims are necessary to maintain social harmony. The fact that the use of these laws has persisted under Anwar, whose coalition championed free speech and promised to repeal key repressive British-era laws while in opposition, has added a further twist.

These debates came to a head in July 2023, when prosecutors filed sedition charges against Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, the caretaker chief minister of Kedah State, and a prominent member of the resurgent Malaysian Islamist Party (PAS). Like Muhyiddin, he was charged with insulting the country’s sultans in a political speech, though he was also a known peddler of Malay nationalist conspiracy theories and comments denigrating the country’s Indian and Chinese communities.

The case prompted a disagreement between those who believe that Anwar’s administration was justified in using colonial-era laws to prevent the spread of right-wing racial rhetoric and disinformation, and those who believe that this could backfire politically, feeding the grievances of right-wing Malay ethnonationalism.

[kazifatagar]

New: Muhyiddin ordered to pay Lim Guan Eng RM1.35 Million in defamation suit

The High Court has ordered Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to pay RM1.35 million in damages to Lim Guan Eng for defamation related to the revocation of Albukhary Foundation’s tax exemption. Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain ruled in Lim’s favor, finding that Muhyiddin failed to verify the accuracy of his statements before posting them on Facebook. Despite having resources to confirm the…

[suara-rakyat-blog]

Kamu tahu muka dia muka penipu

[selvarajasomiahposts]

Hajiji: Perajurit yang Menentang Fanatisme dan Ekstremisme

Sesungguhnya, Hajiji Noor ialah insan nan mulia. Pertimbangkanlah sejauh manakah kemuliaan Ketua Menteri Sabah sebenarnya. Beliau seorang insan yang berani, berhati waja dan memiliki prinsip yang utuh. Dengan tegasnya ia melawan rasuah. Hanya dua tahun lebih sahaja diperlukannya untuk sedar bahawa bekas majikannya, Muhyiddin Yassin daripada Parti Bersatu, umpama biawak hidup dek tuduhan rasuah…

[dailystraitsdotcom]

Ringgit and Public Sector

Ringgit, Rakyat, and Reality: New Look at Public Sector.

By Mahathir Mohd Rais Facing more and more economic pressure, it’s real important to look at what it means to change to contract jobs in Malaysia’s public sector, something Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin talked about. This move, they hope, will make the country’s ‘money matters’ more stable, but it’s making government workers and regular folks worried, especially those living in rurall areas. The…