KUALA LUMPUR - Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad was attacked by a mob as he was approaching the main Parliament building this morning.
Fortunately for the Amanah lawmaker, parliament security officers came to his rescue and prevented the incident from turning ugly. However, it was later learnt that one officer was injured in the melee.
The group of about 20-30 men had initially harrassed Khalid, shouting “Hidup Pasir Salak! Hidup Pasir Salak!”, but after one of them fell to the ground while being confronted by the security officers, the scene turned ugly.
The mob went after Khalid and the security officers were able to shield him from any harm.
The whole scene was captured on video by FMT reporters in the premises.
Khalid later told reporters that he was not hurt during the attack by the mob.
“They didn’t manage to touch me, thanks to the four security officers who gave me good cover.”
According to Khalid, security officers had warned him that a group of men from Pasir Salak were in the area.
The group confronted Khalid as he got out from his car.
One of the men in the video was later seen shouting at Khalid, saying “ini baru permulaan”, which translates to “this is just the beginning”.
It is believed that the men are Umno Youth members from Pasir Salak and they were waiting to show their displeasure to Khalid over the incident in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday, when Khalid had called Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, “menteri sial”.
The incident in the House had stemmed from a remark that the agriculture and agro-based industry deputy minister had first made, referring to Seputeh MP Teresa Kok as “the only woman with a ‘Kok’.”
He refused to retract his statement and he was supported by Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee who ruled that no retraction was necessary, saying that Tajuddin was only referring to Kok’s name.
Over the past two days, Tajuddin has been asked repeatedly by the media at the parliament lobby and both times he went into a tirade accusing the media of favouring the opposition and remaining steadfast that he had not said anything sexist or wrong against the DAP lawmaker.
Asked to comment on the mob attack by the group, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the group might be investigated under the anti-terror law, based on the video of their actions.
“We also have to investigate who let them in. We cannot assume anything,” Nur Jazlan added.