JUST two months into the job, everything has gone well for first-time Seri Delima assemblyman Syerleena Abdul Rashid in Penang, until she found herself “threatened” with death.

Yesterday afternoon, the DAP Women wing’s national assistant secretary found a threatening note in her service centre’s letter box.

The note had just three words handwritten in red and in capital letters – “Maut Menanti Kamu!” (death awaits you).

Syerleena said she did not know who the culprit was or his intentions, but it was obvious the person wanted to scare and intimidate her.

“When you get threats like this, what can you do but try to laugh it off? When you have done nothing wrong, why should you fear?

“But then, you cannot take a death threat lightly,” she told reporters at her service centre in Island Glades this morning.

She lodged a report over the threat with the police as a precaution yesterday evening, and the note is now with the police after it was dusted for fingerprints.

This is not the first time Syerleena, 38, was threatened.

More than a year ago, and during the recent 14th general election, when she became the first Malay woman candidate fielded by DAP in Penang, she had come under heavy attack on Facebook and was painted as anti-Islam.

The former Penang Island City councillor was accused of wanting to change Malaysia’s official religion to Christianity, and to attack the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) for DAP.

The postings went viral after they were shared multiple times by different Facebook users. Banners with similar inflammatory accusations against Syerleena also surfaced around Penang during the election.

After a night ceramah during the campaigning period, one of her campaign team members Muhammad Shahrizul Muiz was also tailed and threatened by an unknown man, who told him to “jaga-jaga” (be careful).

Reports to the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) over the incidents were lodged last year and this year, but Syerleena said no action has been taken against those responsible.

Yesterday morning, she found the same “anti-Islam” postings against her being recycled and circulated on Facebook again.

This prompted Syerleena to also lodge a fresh police report over the Facebook postings yesterday, with hopes that action would be taken this time.

“After my previous complaint, MCMC told me that the Facebook page Darul Ehsan Leaks, where the postings originated from, was created overseas. Because of that, it could not take action.

“But the problem is once the postings are there, other social media users will share them,” she said.

The Facebook account Darul Ehsan Leaks is a pro-Barisan Nasional page, judging from its postings that promoted the former ruling party and attacked Pakatan Harapan (PH) during the recent elections.

“We have changed the federal administration. The PH government is conducting a massive clean-up of our many national institution. Hopefully, these new reports will lead to action.

“I thought after changing the federal government, such incidents would be a thing in the past,” she said.

The northeast district police confirmed receiving Syerleena’s reports.

Police said the suspect behind the death threat and the motive of the threat were being investigated under Section 507 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation. – July 11, 2018.