Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor

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Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor

MLA
محمد سنوسي مد نور‎
Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor.png
14th Menteri Besar of Kedah
Assumed office
17 May 2020
MonarchSallehuddin
Preceded byMukhriz Mahathir
ConstituencyJeneri
Leader of the Opposition of the
Kedah State Legislative Assembly
In office
4 July 2018 – 17 May 2020
MonarchSallehuddin
Menteri BesarMukhriz Mahathir
Preceded byAmiruddin Hamzah
Succeeded byPhahrolrazi Mohd Zawawi
ConstituencyJeneri
Member of the
Kedah State Legislative Assembly for
Jeneri
Assumed office
9 May 2018
Preceded byMahadzir Abdul Hamid (UMNO–BN)
Majority2,455 (2018)
Personal details
Born (1974-08-04) 4 August 1974 (age 47)[1]
Sik, Kedah, Malaysia[citation needed]
CitizenshipMalaysian
Political partyMalaysian Islamic Party (PAS)
Other political
affiliations		Pakatan Rakyat (PR)
Gagasan Sejahtera (GS)
Muafakat Nasional (MN)
Perikatan Nasional (PN)
Alma materUniversity of Science Malaysia
OccupationPolitician

Muhammad Sanusi bin Md Nor (born 4 August 1974[1]) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the 14th Menteri Besar of Kedah since May 2020 and Member of the Kedah State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Jeneri since May 2018 and was the Leader of the Opposition of the state from July 2018 to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan state administration led by his predecessor Mukhriz Mahathir in May 2020. A member of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), he is the party's Deputy Commissioner I of the state.[2][3]

Background[]

Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor is the seventh child of 13 siblings of Haji Md Nor Taib and Hajah Meriam Ahmad. Muhammad Sanusi married Jusmalailani Jusoh and raised five children. He received his primary education at Sekolah Rendah Batu 5, Sik, Sekolah Menengah Sains Sultan Mohamad Jiwa, Sungai Petani and his secondary education at Sekolah Menengah Sik as well as Sekolah Menengah Derma Kangar, Perlis. He is a graduate of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).[citation needed]

Politics[]

  • PAS Election Director
  • Chairman of PASRelief
  • Central Director-General of PAS Security (2017 to date)
  • PAS President of Sik Area, Kedah (2015 to date).
  • Kedah PAS Deputy Commissioner (2015 to date)
  • Political Secretary to 10th Menteri Besar of Kedah Tan Sri Dato' Seri Ustaz Hj Azizan Abdul Razak (2008 to 2013).
  • 14th Menteri Besar of Kedah

Controversies[]

Arrests of critics[]

In August 2021, four people were arrested for allegedly insulting Sanusi over his "joke" on the freezer containers to hold corpses of COVID-19 victims. The first arrest was made on a 61-year old senior citizen who was detained at his house at 3:57am in Lenggeng, Negeri Sembilan and taken to Sungai Petani, Kedah which is more than 400 kilometer away from the suspect's house, after a police report lodged by Sanusi’s special officer, Azizan Hamzah.[4] Two more people were arrested in Mergong Perdana and Kepala Batas after a police report was lodged over the offensive comments made by the two persons on Facebook.[5] An IT analyst from Taiping was the fourth person to be arrested, which prompted the suspect's pregnant wife to comment "I feel that you don’t need to be a MB if you cannot take criticism. Better to just sit down and look through FB comments all day,”.[6] The series of arrests and questioning of citizens for their criticisms of a publicly elected official drew sharp rebukes and criticism from the Malaysian public, Centre for Independent Journalism, opposition politicians and a Federal Minister from the ruling government.[7][8][9][10][11][12]

Fallacious claims on rare-earth elements extraction permit award[]

Earlier in December 2020, Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor announced the Kedah state government has awarded a Kuala Lumpur-based company a permit to prospect and extract rare earth elements purportedly worth RM 43 Trillion. Upon further investigation, it is cleared that the rare earth element deposits was only estimated RM 62 Billion and not the amount he claimed to be.[13][14] There are also claims saying that Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor are intentionally courting controversies and being provocative to draw attention away from the "43 Trillion Mineral Deposit discovery in Kedah" claims.[15]

Racial-based-slurs[]

Drunk-on-toddy remarks[]

Topping the claims, Muhammad Sanusi has been called out in the local press and media channels for his derogatory statements against the minority communities linking with being drunkards. He purportedly commented on the opposition member not to be drunk on toddy in his speeches. This stirred the emotions of the minorities and caused a lot of bashes and calls for him to apologize publicly.[16][17] Following the remarks, Sanusi avoided from apologizing and continued to offend more by calling for ban on the Malaysian Indian Congress Party which caused the chairman of MIC, Tan Sri Vigneswaran to call him an ignorant MB.[18][19]

Hindu Temple Demolishing[]

The photo showing the press conference organized by the Hindu NGO Coalition requesting the minister to apologize for his statement and stop temple demolition works immediately.

Muhammad Sanusi will also be remembered for inciting the demolishment of the temples despite the call for stop from the Indian community. It became nationwide issue as the act has induced many political leaders, religious leaders and NGO representatives to voice out calling him being insensitive towards the sensitivity of the religion followers.[20][21][22] There was a speculations raised that Sanusi did everything in clear mindsight only to avoid being in the limelight of the past claims he made regarding the 43 Trillion Ringgit Mineral Deposit scandal. The Malay Mail newspaper highlighted that he has chosen to divert the attention to a much more sensitive topics such as religious beliefs.[23] Some did also came out to support Sanusi's act on the demolishing of the hindu temples.[24][25] The Coalitions of Hindu NGOs has requested him to stop the demolishing and apologize else to bring the matter to the attention of the Palace through a reactive press conference.[26][27] Through the press conference, the coalition representatives requested Sanusi to guarantee that the demolishments will no more take place which Sanusi on reacted saying everything is happening under the purview of law.[28] Taking part in the press conference, was the Malaysian Head, Global Hindu Federation, Dato' Pardip Kumar Kukreja, Chairman of MAHA. V.Kandasamy, Malaysia Hindu Dharma Mamandram (MHDM) president A. Radhakrishnan, R.Naraesh Pillai, Rajaratnam. Meanwhile, the Chairman of United Malaysian Hindu Voice (UMHV) Navindran Palasendaram[29] urged the government to be more proactive and remain sensitive and prepare an ecosystem to secure to the rights of the Hindu community in Malaysia. He also added that UMHV is also prepared to work for a permanent solution for the issues faced by the Hindu temples and communities hands on with the government.[29]

Footballer Racist Remark[]

During a press conference of Malaysian football club Kedah FA, Muhammad Sanusi acting as the president of the club made racial remarks of its foreign players, by referring to them as 'awang hitam' which translates as 'black man' (awang mean a man in Malay). Not criminal as translated before), also a term used by certain dailies to identify African men.[30]

Thaipusam holiday[]

On 21 January 2021, Sanusi said the Thaipusam festival would not be marked as a public holiday since there is no celebration of the annual festival for the year given the spike in Covid-19 cases, and all public gatherings will be barred. He said the state would allow state assemblyman service centres to operate via drive-through services for the people in their respective constituencies. However, only one-third of devotees will be allowed to pray at temples during the festival.[31]

The MCA has also described Sanusi's decision as illogical and disrespectful of the country's minorities' rights. The MIC deputy president Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said the decision sends a negative signal about PAS to all minorities in the country. "He has planted the seed of fear in the minds of all minorities," said . The former MIC secretary-general said PAS central leadership tried its best to portray the party as being inclusive. He also criticised PAS for saying that MIC did not support PAS during the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018. He reminded Sanusi that during GE14, PAS was not a component of the Barisan Nasional.[32]

Election results[]

Kedah State Legislative Assembly[33][34]
Year Constituency Votes Pct Opponent(s) Votes Pct Ballots cast Majority Turnout
2008 N23 Belantek, P013 Sik Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor (PAS) 7,974 49.20% Mohd Tajuddin Abdullah (UMNO) 8,226 50.70% 16,475 252 86.60%
2018 N24 Jeneri, P013 Sik Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor (PAS) 10,626 46.32% Mahadzir Abdul Hamid (UMNO) 8,171 35.61% 27,641 2,455 84.70%
Mohd Nazri Abu Hassan (PPBM) 4,146 18.07%

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b https://www.sinarharian.com.my/article/83937/EDISI/Utara/Muhammad-Sanusi-pemimpin-mesra-mudah-didekati
  2. ^ "Muhammad Sanusi dijangka angkat sumpah MB Kedah esok". 16 May 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Menteri Besar baharu Kedah angkat sumpah esok". 16 May 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  4. ^ "61-year-old arrested for taunting Sanusi over freezer container 'joke'". TheVibes. 9 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  5. ^ "2 more arrested for insulting Kedah MB". FreeMalaysiaToday. 10 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Pregnant wife upset over hubby's 3-day remand for scolding Kedah MB". Free Malaysia Today. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  7. ^ "'Politicians shouldn't go after critics' - minister says amid Kedah MB's offensive". MalaysiaKini. 12 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  8. ^ "CIJ raises alarm over arrests of citizens for criticising Kedah MB". New Straits Times. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Why so quick to nab senior citizen who criticised Kedah MB? - Ramasamy". Yahoo. 10 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  10. ^ "Arrested for insulting Sanusi? You must be joking". Free Malaysia Today. 12 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  11. ^ "Stop trampling on people's freedom to criticise politicians, Kedah MB told". Malaysia Kini. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  12. ^ "Arresting Kedah MB's critics uncalled for, say lawyers". Free Malaysia Today. 10 August 2021.
  13. ^ "Kedah to tap RM62 billion rare earth deposits, not RM43 trillion". Malaysiakini. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  14. ^ Johan, Syahredzan (11 December 2020). "COMMENT | Leaders must not indulge in racial insults". Malaysiakini. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  15. ^ Ong, Justin. "Kedah MB demolishing temples to divert from his claim of 'RM43t' in mineral deposits, says DAP rep | Malay Mail". www.malaymail.com. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  16. ^ Tee, Kenneth. "Amanah joins call for Kedah MB to publicly apologise over 'drunk on toddy' comment | Malay Mail". www.malaymail.com. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  17. ^ "Kedah MB tells critics to take BM classes after racial slur accusations". Malaysiakini. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  18. ^ Nambiar, Predeep (3 December 2020). "This is what happens when you pick an ignorant man to be MB, MIC says after ban remark". Free Malaysia Today. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  19. ^ Choong, Jerry. "Criticised over temple demolition, Kedah MB tells MIC and DAP critics not to be drunk on 'toddy' of popularity | Malay Mail". www.malaymail.com. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  20. ^ "Kedah MB broke promise over temple demolition – minister". Malaysiakini. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  21. ^ Reporters, F. M. T. (3 December 2020). "Kedah MB broke his promise on temple demolition, says Saravanan". Free Malaysia Today. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  22. ^ Surendran, N. (3 December 2020). "LETTER | Kedah MB's defence of temple demolition unacceptable". Malaysiakini. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  23. ^ Ong, Justin. "Kedah MB demolishing temples to divert from his claim of 'RM43t' in mineral deposits, says DAP rep | Malay Mail". www.malaymail.com. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  24. ^ Salleh, Syahirah (24 December 2020). "Tidak roboh bangunan dibina ikut peraturan". HarakahDaily. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  25. ^ "Kedah MB: No guarantee to not demolish illegal buildings". Malaysiakini. 21 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  26. ^ Reporters, F. M. T. (21 December 2020). "Roboh kuil: Sanusi harus pohon maaf dan diambil tindakan oleh Istana, desak NGO". Free Malaysia Today. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  27. ^ Kaur, Minderjeet (21 December 2020). "Apologise for unethical remarks, demolishing temple, Hindus tell Kedah MB". Free Malaysia Today. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  28. ^ Topics, Head. "NGO desak MB Kedah beri jaminan tiada lagi kuil akan diroboh | The Malaysian Insight". Head Topics. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b "NGOs condemn temple demolition, demands apology from Kedah MB". Multilingual e-Newspaper | The Hindu Press. 21 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  30. ^ "By calling footballers 'awang hitam', was Kedah MB ignorant or insensitive?". TwentyTwo13. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  31. ^ "No Thaipusam public holiday for Kedah this year, says MB | The Star". www.thestar.com.my. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  32. ^ "Sanusi's decision sending chills to all minorities, says MIC | The Star". www.thestar.com.my. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  33. ^ "SEMAKAN KEPUTUSAN PILIHAN RAYA UMUM KE – 14" (in Malay). Election Commission of Malaysia. Retrieved 17 May 2018. Percentage figures based on total turnout.
  34. ^ "The Star Online GE14". The Star. Retrieved 24 May 2018. Percentage figures based on total turnout.

External links[]

Government offices
Preceded by
Mukhriz Mahathir 		Chief Minister of Kedah
2020–present 		Succeeded by
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