Malaysians vent about Azmin on Austrian minister’s FB page
Malaysian netizens vented about International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic on Austria’s Digital and Economic Affairs Minister Margarete Schramböck’s Facebook post.
This was after the comment feature on Azmin’s social media platforms were turned off amid sustained angry comments.
This caught the attention of ex-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, who on his own official Facebook page snidely remarked: “Min (Azmin), the people asked you to close down factories, not the comment section."
On Schramböck’s Facebook page, her post in German about meeting Azmin garnered more than 6,100 comments, most of which were from Malaysians.
“Her Excellency Dr Margerete Schramböck, we want to trade Azmin Ali with anything convenient to you, a loaf… a stone, doesn’t matter. We’ll take anything for him to stay there. Please consider this trade, thank you,” said a Facebook user.
Another apologised for “disturbing” Schramböck but noted that they couldn’t comment on Azmin's Facebook page.
“Because of him, the number of Covid-19 cases here shot up uncontrollably,” added another user.
Azmin later posted about the same meeting on his Facebook page which allowed users to comment.
However, commenting was still not allowed on his previous posts.
“I had a productive bilateral meeting with Her Excellency Dr Margerete Schramböck, the federal minister for digital and economic affairs of Austria.
“We agreed on the paramount importance of further strengthening the current strong bilateral trade and investment relations between Malaysia and Austria,” Azmin said on his own Facebook page.
The post received more than 1,900 comments, most of which were complaints about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Azmin had faced criticism for allowing various factories to operate during the total lockdown.
Anger has grown as Covid-19 cases continued to rise despite the strict movement restriction.
New cases hit a record high of 9,180 yesterday, with more than 4,000 in Selangor.
The government also decided to allow departmental stores to resume operations yesterday.
Isetan and Sogo were among the outlets that announced their reopening yesterday.
