Arrest of Chegubard for flogging PMX effigy during ‘Turun Anwar' demo: Is PMX too thin-skinned?

Focus Malaysia

a day ago

IT IS often said that the main pre-requisite to a career in politics is an extra, thick hide. Expect all manner of criticism, insults and brickbats the more populist and high profile one gets.
In a functioning democracy, such is the perils of the occupation which is par for the course.
Apparently not as Bersatu activist and political influencer Badrul Hisham Shaharin a.k.a. Chegubard, found out to his detriment when he was arrested for an action he meted out during the Turun Anwar rally on July 26.
His crime?
For daring to administer a caning to an effigy that resembled Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
By all accounts, the rally took place without incident apart from contested accounts of littering. And this little piece of political theatre that is common in street protests.
Has PMX become a touch too sensitive with such actions leading to a knock on the door from the cops? Quite a number of citizens seem to think so.
Chegubard seemed to have found an ally in former de facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim who did not hold back in his criticism in a Facebook post.
PMX was reminded that his own supporters had been guilty of similar actions in the past when they burned books by his nemesis Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Moreover, mages of Datuk Seri Najib Razak were also defaced and damaged by the same Reformasi supporters in later rallies and protest movements.
The opposition-slant UMNO member further pointed out that NO punitive action was taken back then.
Yet, Anwar who is championing democratic principles and a reformist agenda is now behaving like a 'Third World autocrat' who is 'thin-skinned, vindictive and insecure'.
President of the Malaysian Advancement Party (MAP) Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy was also extremely critical of Chergubard's arrest which he described as an abuse of power aimed at silencing political dissent.
While whipping PMX's effigy may be seemingly offensive, it is not an offence that warrants arrest, it was stressed.
The HINDRAF (Hindu Rights Action Force) founder also described the incident as a direct attack on the freedom of speech that PMX often touted.
Given the oxygen of publicity that this arrest has generated, Chegubard has remained unrepentant and even told his interrogators the reason for his actions.
The Port Dickson Bersatu division chief cheekily claimed that it was because he was unable to administer a whipping on PMX himself that he has to flog his effigy instead.
'If I could, I wouldn't need to whip the effigy,' quipped the 47-year-old agent provocateur.
Mengapa Chegubard sebat patung Anwar ? Ini jawapannya…. pic.twitter.com/oFPX9GZDFs
— MYNEWSHUB (@mynewshub) July 29, 2025
Few things this episode highlights.
In a way, Chegubard's arrest goes against the reformist agenda which swept PMX to power. That the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman is using various legislation such as the Sedition Act 1948 to silence detractors makes him look like a hypocrite.
The apparent thinness of PMX hide will also be cause of some concern. Having withstood political pressures that included incarceration behind bars, it would have thought that the septuagenarian leader would be made of sterner stuff.
Alas, this action against Chegubard proves otherwise. If anything, it has given the Turun Anwar rally added publicity when it was already fading into the background. – Aug 4, 2025