‘Grow up,’ KJ tells Anwar, Muhyiddin over name-calling

Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (left) said Anwar Ibrahim and Muhyiddin Yassin should halt the name-calling as it could lead to harsher insults later on.

PETALING JAYA: A former minister has hit out at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin for resorting to name-calling when taking their political opponents to task, telling them to “grow up”.

Khairy Jamaluddin said terms such as “madanon” and “walaun” were both despicable and derogatory.

The former Umno Youth chief, who was the health minister under Muhyiddin’s government, said such labels could lead to harsher insults, like “khawarij” in referring to the theme of a sermon at mosques nationwide last Friday.

“Khawarij” is used to describe Muslims who hold extremist views or carry out acts of violence towards other Muslims.

Khairy said both Anwar and Muhyiddin were not children, noting that they were in their 70s.

“Muhyiddin and Anwar, are grandfathers, yet they still resort to calling their rivals ‘walaun’ and ‘madanon’.

“Come on, grow up, guys,” he said in the latest episode of the “Keluar Sekejap” podcast that he co-hosts with former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan.

Muhyiddin had used the term “madanon” at the recent Bersatu extraordinary general meeting.

The term is commonly used by PN supporters to describe those who support Anwar’s administration, which has adopted the slogan “Malaysia Madani”.

It is a combination of the term “madani” with “Bang Non”, the pet name Anwar’s family used to refer to him.

Last April, Anwar had used the term “walaun” against his critics at a dialogue with university students. The term is used to refer to hardcore supporters.

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