Netizens up in arms over Bung’s ‘Hitler’ tweet

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin’s tweet saluting Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler when congratulating the German team’s performance in the World Cup semi-finals earned him all-round wrath from netizens. Even the German envoy here found it “distasteful”.

Holger Michael “strongly rejects” the Kinabatangan MP’s tweet in a report, describing it as a “distasteful and unacceptable allusion to the fascist regime of Adolf Hitler”.

But Bung showed no remorse when The Star pointed out the German ambassador to Malaysia’s comment yesterday. Bung merely said he was a fan of the German team and was genuinely happy with the 7-1 win over Brazil.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with people sometimes,” he said. “Hitler is part of history and the German team fought like how he did.”

Bung’s tweet early yesterday morning was: “WELL DONE..BRAVO...LONG LIVE HITLER”.

Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, was responsible for the holocaust that resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews that included women and children.

Bung’s tweet went viral, with netizens condemning him for being “utterly insensitive”, among other things.

The Kinabatangan MP, however, maintained that his tweet was sent out “just for fun”.

“I think people nowadays should transform their mentality. Whatever I tweet, people hit me. They are not hitting me because of Hitler but because I am Bung Mokhtar,” he claimed.

The MP has been embroiled in a number of controversies in the past for sexist and politically incorrect remarks.

He made headlines in 2007 over his bocor remark, referring to former Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan’s menstruation cycle when arguing about Parlia­ment’s ceiling that was, at the time, leaking.

Yesterday, at his office in Komtar, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng condemned Bung’s tweet, saying: “Bung Mokhtar could end up in jail if he had pledged his support for Hitler or Nazism while in Germany.

“Germans are not pro-Hitler.

“They are a peace-loving people who are also one of the biggest investors here. We do not want German investors to get the wrong impression and be driven away over such a remark.”