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PETALING JAYA: Petaling Jaya city mayor Mohamad Zahri Samingon recently became subject to criticism after a video by political party Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) showed him apparently shushing those who were trying to speak to him at a rally.
On Tuesday (April 30), several residents of the Taman Petaling Utama low-cost flats in PJS 1 were gathered in front of the Petaling Jaya City Council building in a bid to get the mayor to address and resolve the issues that have plagued the residents for many years, according to PSM’s website.
A post on X by @PSMPetalingJaya stated that the attendees had waited for over three hours for the mayor.
Another video in the X thread then showed the mayor arriving in front of the MBPJ building and walking together with his police escorts, towards the attendees gathered at the side. Zahri at first, clapped his hands twice as he walked towards the crowd.
One of the individuals from the gathering began explaining the issue to Zahri who then shushed him, as depicted in the video. This was met with a negative reaction with the man telling the mayor “don’t shush me!”
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However, the man was then interrupted with another shush by Zahri. As the man began to speak up again, he was met with another shush.
Needless to say, netizens were irked by the mayor’s actions and compared his behaviour to those of a higher position in the government.
“Realistically, can anyone think of a time they were shushed like this? Even the King doesn’t act like this,” a netizen commented.
“The audacity! People came to voice out their concerns and this is how they’ve been treated. Arrogant!,” another netizen quipped.
Later on, Zahri addressed the matter and explained that he only asked the attendees to remove their banners from the ground and lower their voices, according to a report by Malaysiakini .
“One person said I was being rude for shushing them, but I said, as a mayor, I need them to remove the banner before we discuss their issue,” he said.
