Dr Kamarul Blames Fake Facebook Post For Putting Him & His Family In Danger
The academic said he is a victim of lies, deceit, and character assassination.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 30 Apr 2021, 07:09 PM
Following his claim that Bukit Mertajam lawmaker Steven Sim is a "Christian evangelist", controversial academic Dr Kamarul Zaman Yusoff said his family and his safety is under threat
This comes after the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) senior lecturer Dr Kamarul Zaman Yusoff said his Facebook account was suspended by the social media company twice over the past few days.
According to New Straits Times, he said he is now a victim of lies, deceit, and character assassination.
When his Facebook account was suspended, he claimed that a certain party used his name to upload a Facebook post titled 'Another Chinese DAP opera?'.
The post not only featured Sim, but also the Raja Muda of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail.
In a screenshot of the purported post that SAYS sighted, Kamarul said that Sim had previously made a show out of buying a motorcycle for a person that does not exist, and now he is putting on an act of cycling with the Raja Muda of Perlis.
"The man in the photo is masked all the time and there is no proof that he is the Raja Muda of Perlis. One of DAP's insolence towards the Malay Rulers institution," the purported post read.
On Tuesday, 27 April, Sim uploaded four photos of him and Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail cycling around Perlis, while offering help to people in need.
The purported Facebook post with Kamarul's name attached used one of the photos Sim uploaded.
Kamarul denied that he had uploaded the Facebook post, claiming his account was suspended during that period
"When I checked, I found that the supposed Facebook post was spread by about a dozen individuals from around 4pm onwards on April 28 (Wednesday)," New Straits Times quoted the political analyst as saying.
"When the false Facebook post was being spread, my account was suspended. I could not make any posts or comments for 24 hours because there were complaints lodged against me concerning my posts which supposedly breached Facebook's Community Standards."
"Once I was able to access my account which was at about 6.30pm on 28 April, I put up a post denying I had made such a posting implicating the Raja Muda of Perlis. I listed down the 12 individuals I found spreading the false post. I even mentioned that I will be suing them."
"However, at about 9pm on 28 April, my Facebook account was suspended once more, and this time for three days. This was because there were complaints made about my (previous) post, in which I denied implicating the Raja Muda of Perlis. This had once again supposedly breached Facebook's Community Standards," Kamarul explained.
After the purported post went viral, Kamarul said individuals associated with opposition parties had put up postings to teach members of the public how to lodge a police report against him
Demi Rakyat — a Facebook page with 290,000 followers — is one of the groups that taught people how to lodge a police report against Kamarul.
In a post published yesterday, 29 April, it said people can demand an investigation into Kamarul for allegedly breaching Section 298A and 504 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The provisions mentioned deal with causing disharmony and disunity, intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, and improper use of network services respectively.
"Following such lies and accusations levelled against me, my family and the institution where I work — Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) — have been on the receiving end of these recent waves of criticism and anger," the professor said, as reported by New Straits Times.
It has put risk to our safety.
"The people who made or spread the false Facebook post; and those who had encouraged, aided, and lodged police reports against me have committed a serious crime. I will lodge a police report on the matter as soon as possible."
However, in the statement, the academic did not mention how his earlier remarks against Sim have stirred racial tension in the country.
At the time of writing, both Kamarul's Facebook account and UUM's Facebook page are inaccessible
Free Malaysia Today reported that many netizens flocked to UUM's Nuzul Al-Quran post on social media to call for Kamarul to be sacked.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also criticised the academic, questioning why Sim's act of kindness had become such an issue.
"Why was it such a big issue. There were no problems, but it became a big issue because he (Sim) helped a Malay person," Anwar said.
He said it is an MP's duty to help those who are struggling regardless of race, before adding that the government's "weak and slow" leadership has also caused the issue to inflame racial and religious tensions.
