Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi talking to reporters at MACC headquarters on Friday. -Mohd Sahar Misni/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Ministers and social advocates have criticised Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for suggesting that the activities of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community might incur God's wrath.
They said the focus should instead be on pressing issues such as corruption.
Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said instead of LGBT, corruption was the "biggest social ill and immoral activity" in Malaysia.
"Of all the pressing issues the Opposition leader @Zahid_Hamidi could have raised, he chose this.
"Corruption is the biggest social ill and immoral activity in Malaysia. State Umno's stance on this instead," she said on her Twitter account on Tuesday (Oct 23).
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman asked Dr Ahmad Zahid what fate might befall those who stole the people's money.
"How about those who are corrupt and in cahoots with those who steal the people's money? Will misfortune fall?" he asked.
Syed Saddiq said in his ministry, 12 people had been arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), adding that in Umno there had so many that he had lost count.
"I have never heard that misfortune would fall because of (the act of) a thief," he said.
During Question Time in parliament on Tuesday, Dr Ahmad Zahid made the remark that the nation might possibly face God's wrath due to the actions of the LGBT community.
He said the earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Indonesia happened because of God's punishment for LGBT activities taking place there.
Meanwhile, when contacted, activist lawyer Siti Kasim said that what the Umno president had said simply "proved his stupidity and the hateful thinking that went into such a comment”.
