The Crown Prince of Johor has labelled Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman a “drama queen” after the former youth and sports minister started a crowdfunding campaign to help settle his legal expenses.
“Drama queen. I pity the rakyat who always end up being the victim of political games,” said Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, who has in the past been at odds with the Muar MP.
Tunku Ismail, known as TMJ, said this in response to a report which quoted Syed Saddiq as saying he needed the people’s help even if it was just a contribution of 50 sen.
“It’s an act and it is to deceive the people, all for the sake of votes and power. You can’t trust almost all of them,” Utusan Malaysia quoted Tunku Ismail as saying.
Yesterday, Syed Saddiq pleaded not guilty before the sessions court to two charges of misappropriating a total of RM1.12 million belonging to Bersatu Youth.
From the amount, RM120,000 was said to be party funds for the 2018 general election, while RM1 million was allegedly withdrawn by him without the leadership’s consent.
Syed Saddiq was granted bail of RM330,00 for both charges. Last night, he started a fundraiser for the bail amount and his legal fees.
This chubby, no longer so young royal clearly lacks the imagination to understand what a lack of total impunity must be like for normal mortals.
He can’t conceive how it might feel to face jail if one can’t lay hands on an extraordinary sum of money in a matter of days because:
a) whatever he does (and there is much bruised testimony to his actions over the years) he knows he will get away with it and
b) his family coffers are limitless and able to sustain any amount of bail you care to mention several times over.
So, in turning to others for help to escape what he convincingly terms as a politically motivated incarceration Syed Saddiq is merely acting a “Drama Queen’ as the pampered prince would have it. Moreover, Syed is ‘deceiving’ people by taking contributions.
The attitude is familiar amongst certain over-privileged youths, but what seems extraordinary is the Prince’s failure even to realise that such sneers are better restricted to his private circles in a situation such as his.
He plainly feels no concern whatsoever about what others may think of his arrogance or behaviour nor considers himself bound to set some kind of example of royal dignity (rising above the fray).
It is an indication that this next in line Sultan of Johor is travelling even further backwards in his mind in the direction not of a modern constitutional monarchy (his legitimate role) but towards a medieval state of thuggery, where robber barons can act how they like, grab what they want and play God to boot.
Thus this scion of the “30% family“, which has been caught over and again looting public lands and contracts, openly mocks a man who requests voluntary support to stand up to power, claiming it is the subject who is taking money and deceiving the public.
The Prince’s mindset clearly owes to the years of untrammelled exploitation enjoyed by his own family – but to articulate such arrogance so openly will likely accelerate the process that was completed in most places elsewhere many hundreds of years ago.