It seems that no one can run away from the wrath of Malaysia’s world famous ‘bawang army’, not even when you turn off the comments section on your social media. Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Dato’ Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali found out the hard way following his official visit to Austria as despite turning off the comments section on his Facebook and restricting replies on his Twitter, Malaysian netizens redirected their ‘attacks’ on Austria’s Digital and Economic Affairs Minister instead.
Azmin Ali recently went on a trade mission to Austria to explore growth areas for bilateral trade and investments with the Europen nation which has been well received by his Austrian counterpart. The Austrian Digital and Economic Affairs Minister, Margarete Schramböck took to Facebook to share photos of Azmin’s visit and it then become flooded with comments from Malaysian netizens.
The Austrian Minister must’ve been perplexed as to how her comments section somehow morphed into a platform for Malaysians to vent out their frustrations towards Azmin Ali. As of the time of writing, the Facebook post has over 7,500 comments and 2,600 shares, almost all of which originated from Malaysia. In fact, most of the comments are even written in Bahasa Malaysia, even though Schramböck wrote the post in German.
One commenter wrote,
“Don’t trust him. If your country has a volcano, throw him inside. You won’t just save one country, but you will also save all other nations. Thank you.”
Okay, we understand that emotions may run high with the alarming Covid-19 situation in Malaysia, but this remark is really uncalled for, don’t you think? Nevertheless, it seems a lot of people found this comment entertaining as it received more than 2,300 likes.
Meanwhile another commenter received over 2,100 likes for his claim that Azmin is the worst minister in Malaysia and hoped that Schramböck could ‘school’ him or even take him forever to Austria.
Another commenter was rather apologetic and quite polite by firstly apologising to Schramböck for disturbing her Facebook status before clarifying his anger for Azmin. The commenter said that because Azmin has turned off the comments section on his social media accounts, people can no longer aim criticism directly at him.
He then warned Schramböck to not waste her time to negotiate with a ‘useless minsiter’ and also claimed that Azmin’s ministry is the reaason why so many companies in Malaysia are going bankrupt. Furthermore, he said that Austria is better off investing in Malaysia after the General Election is held so that they can negotiate with a better leader.
Another popular commenter, this time with over 1,400 likes was equally polite and even apologised to Schramböck for the ‘filthy choice of words’ used by the other comments and that they are only venting their frustrations towards Azmin and have no ill intention towards her. The comment then elaborated that the reason why Malaysians are angry at Azmin is because of his alleged incompetency as a minister and hoped that Austria would refrain from giving credit to the ‘imbecile’.
What do you guys think of the attacks by Malaysian netizens on Azmin Ali on another country’s Minister’s Facebook post? Do you think it’s inappropriate and would put a bad name on Malaysia? Or do you think it’s justified? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Also read: #AzminLetakJawatan Petition Garners Over 140,000 Signatures Within 48 Hours
