MCO Defiance: Perak Exco apologizes to Malaysians

Perak state executive council member (exco) Razman Zakaria has apologized to the public after his image at a banquet with a deputy minister at a tahfiz ceremony in Lenggong on Friday evening was shared on social media.

The chairman of the Education, Human Capital Development, NGOs and the Civil Society Committee said what had happened was his mistake.

At the same time, he said, he has decided to come out with an explanation not to avoid legal action but to clarify the facts.

“In my daily commute to help frontliners, I thank God that I am able to help immediately any shortage of equipment that the frontliners face, especially to health workers.

"Every night our staff sends cooked food to the roadblocks around Bagan Serai in particular," he said in a Facebook page today.

Without going down to the ground, he said, it would not be possible to know, among others, the need for mobile toilets for the use of personnel manning roadblocks.

"In each case, we are very concerned about the standard operating procedure (SOP) and if any of our actions are found to be in violation of the SOP, we will improve matters," he said.

On Saturday, Perak police chief Datuk Razarudin Husain said he would take the testimony of a state Exco member with several individuals after their pictures were shared on social media during a dinner with a deputy minister at a tahfiz school in Lenggong.

According to him, the police will call the individuals involved based on the image that went viral, today (Sunday).

The photo was a source of debate among netizens as they deemed them not only in breach of the Movement Control Order (MCO) but did not practise social distancing.

Their actions were considered inappropriate when the government has ordered all Malaysians to obey the instructions set out to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.