Birthday party amid MCO a surprise from volunteers, says deputy minister

Updated 6 years ago · Published on 20 Apr 2020 11:05AM · 9 Comments

Deputy Rural Development Minister Abdul Rahman Mohamed says a surprise birthday party for him by a group of volunteers was unplanned and it would've been rude to refuse. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, April 20, 2020.

DEPUTY Rural Development Minister Abdul Rahman Mohamad said a surprise birthday party for him by a group was unplanned and was not intended to violate the movement-control order (MCO).

“It was all unplanned and I didn’t want to chase them away,” he was quoted as telling The Star online.

The Lipis MP said the gathering on April 13 was brief and he had cut a cake presented to him by the group of volunteers, who had earlier helped him distribute necessities to his constituents.

“I was leaving around 9am when I saw them arriving with a cake. They told me that they wanted to wish me well on my journey to Putrajaya, and they wanted to give me the cake as it was coincidentally my birthday that day.

“It would have been rude to turn them away,” he told The Star. 

Pictures of Rahman’s birthday surprise were uploaded on Facebook on the same day and have been widely shared on social media.

The Umno lawmaker’s followers had also wished him “Happy Birthday” in the comments.

None in the pictures were wearing face masks or practised social distancing.

Senior minister (security) Ismail Sabri Yaakob had recently said those in government are not exempted from the law after two Perikatan Nasional leaders allegedly breached MCO rules.

“Nobody is above the law. I understand that there have been police reports and we will leave it to police to carry out investigations,” he said in Putrajaya yesterday.

Ismail Sabri was commenting on a luncheon that Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali and Perak exco Razman Zakaria attended along with more than a dozen people in a Perak tahfiz school.

Berita Harian reported that police will summon the deputy minister fover the incident. Perak police chief Razarudin Husain, however, said it appears that all the attendees had observed social distancing rules. – April 20, 2020.

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Comments

  • Pants on fire.

    Posted 6 years ago by Zarul MA · Reply

  • Kalau dah salah ngaku je-lah. Tak payah nak jadi bodoh sombong.

    Posted 6 years ago by Anak Malaysia · Reply

  • Just go straight to jail , do not pass Go.

    Posted 6 years ago by Kinetica Cho · Reply

  • Another deputy minister sorely lacking grey matter upstairs. His downlines are obviously trying to ampu bodek him and he says its rude to refuse. People can't even go for the funeral of loved ones because of MCO and some who did got fined. So this silly excuse only exposes his hollowness and his hunger for his new attention, albeit the back door. Shame on him and his downlines. He and all the rest should now be slapped with the normal fine of RM1000 without the need for investigation. PDRM, what are you waiting for? All men are equal before the law.

    Posted 6 years ago by Mike Mok · Reply

  • Shouldnt he as a deputy minister and part of government advise the group to not celebrate his birthday as it is MCO and they have to adhere to it to contain the virus.. Thank them nicely and take the cake home. Now we see him blowing out the candles and transferring his saliva onto the cake and then they sit together to eat the cake. None of them were wearing masks and happily interacting w each other. Our DG must be horrified.

    Posted 6 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • ALL ARE WORKING FROM HOME . WHAT U MINISTER OR MONSTER DOING ARE U ALL NOT WORKING FROM HOME. U SHLD BE TELLING UR PEOPLE TO STAY AT HOME NOT COME TO U TO SEE YOUR FACE N TALK NONSENSE.

    Posted 6 years ago by Lucky Boy · Reply

  • MCO is already stressful..
    The double standards and hurt in the heart of the population further affects our mental health

    Posted 6 years ago by Julian Nagelsmann · Reply

  • What a lame excuse. Instead of wisely telling his followers to stay home and not break the law, he accepted the cake and even invited them into his house to celebrate. If this Is not clearly flouting the MCO, what else is? A family has been fined for attending the funeral wake of a loved ones, hence all the more reason LKS to arrest and charged this backdoor pengkhianat minister and his followers.

    Posted 6 years ago by Rupert Lum · Reply

  • The police should say this " I don't intend to summon you but since its a surprise party, so surprise! You are fine RM 1000."
    That would be fun!

    Posted 6 years ago by Adrian Tan · Reply