Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkaasa Malaysia (Perkasa) has come to the defence of Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s comments on the recent placement of a cow’s head in front of Penang state assemblyman RSN Rayer’s home.
The Home Minister’s comment on the case, which he said was Rayer’s fault for having a “big mouth”, has been sharply criticised by many quarters. However, Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Ali said the incident underlined that other races should not hurt the feelings of the Malays.
“It is not that we want to suck up to Zahid but his remark about the incident is spot on.
“It is not just Rayer alone. Anyone that raises the anger of the people should remember that a big mouth brings trouble,” he said today, according to a report by The Malaysian Insider.
On Saturday, Zahid expressed sympathy over the incident in which a severed and skinned cow’s head was placed in front of Rayer’s home in Penang, allegedly in response to the DAP lawmaker’s outburst in the Penang State Assembly when he proclaimed “UMNO celaka” (“damn UMNO”).
Rayer is a Hindu, a religion which regards cows as sacred animals.
This was not the first time a cow’s head had been used to protest against an alleged slight by Hindus – in 2009, a group of Muslim Shah Alam residents paraded a cow’s head to the Selangor state secretariat building to protest the state government’s decision to relotate a 150-year old Hindu temple from Section 19 to Section 23.
Following that incident, one person was sentenced to a week’s jail and a RM3,000 fine, while another 10 people were fined RM1,000 each for illegal assembly.
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