Ahmad Maslan ‘victimised’ by social media

He warns faceless spin masters on social media, those who deliberately pass off ABC as XYZ, that they will not succeed.

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Ahmad Maslan feels that he has been a victim of faceless “spin masters” on social media. “When I say ABC, they report that I said XYZ.”

“All posters on me on social media are slanderous and malicious. The idea was to create something that will go viral.”

These are part of efforts to make the people hate Umno leaders and the party and government, he added.

“They want to indulge in character assassination to destroy the trust, belief and confidence of the people in the party and government,” he said, adding that the Quran warned that “slander was worse than killing”.

He also told spin masters that they would not succeed in their malicious attempts against him. “The truth will emerge sooner or later and triumph over falsehoods, truth will overcome sleaze, sincerity will overcome evil, and patience will overcome lawlessness.”

He said he hoped that Facebook users would not be easily manipulated by posters, writing, pictures and statements that sounded strange, or anything sensational and suspicious but purportedly from an Umno leader. “Check first, ask around and don’t fall easily for anything or share something that no one should believe.”

He recalled that when the oil price at the pump went up 10 sen, the spin on social media was that he said that the KFC fast food outlets were still full and therefore it could not be true that the people were burdened by the increase. “I never said that. I never even mentioned KFC,” fumed Ahmad, “The spin masters on social media are even willing to create false Facebook accounts under my name to show as if I said this and that.”

He brought up the issue of being ridiculed because he told UiTM students to cook if they wanted to avoid paying GST for their meals and retorted, “I explained the GST issue at UiTM Shah Alam for 45 minutes, complete with multimedia tools. I answered dozens of questions on GST. What was reported was that I asked students to cook for themselves to avoid the impact of GST.”

He cited sardines as another case where he was the victim of spin in the social media. “I did say that fresh fish was not subject to GST, so it’s better to eat fresh than to eat sardines which were subject to the consumption tax,” said Ahmad. “What was reported was that I suggested making fresh fish into sardines to avoid GST.”

In fact, he said, all those products and services previously subject to 10 per cent Sales and Service Tax (SST) should come down since under GST, the tax is 6 per cent. “When the prices didn’t come down, in fact they went up as a result of unscrupulous traders indulging in profiteering, I became the victim.”