Abdul Karim laughs off Mahathir as ‘babo’

Abdul Karim (seated left) speaks to the press as Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii (seated right) and others listen in at DayakDaily’s office in Kuching today (June 29, 2020).

By Adrian Lim

KUCHING, June 29: Asajaya assemblyman Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has laughed off former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s proposal to nominate Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal as the candidate for the prime minister post from the opposition party.

He believed Dr Mahathir is old, describing the Langkawi MP as “babo” (which in Sarawak Malay means senile) who tried to regain power to become the prime minister.

He said the proposal to nominate Shafie for the prime minister’s post was another political tactics by him to divert people’s attention.

“Dr Mahathir loves to spice up Malaysian politics with all kinds of comments.

“Whatever things he said will always be picked up by the media.

“It is just a diversionary effort by him. Sometimes, I feel he is already babo (senile).

“Only senile people will do that,” he told a press conference at DayakDaily’s office here today.

Abdul Karim, who is Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister, was responding to  comments on Dr Mahathir’s proposal to nominate Shafie as the candidate from the opposition party to become the prime minister.

He believed Dr Mahathir himself is the one who wanted to cling on to power and become the prime minister of Malaysia.

Instead, he nominated Shafie to divert the people’s attention from him.

On another note, Abdul Karim said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has done a good job to lead the country in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He added Muhyiddin has also done well to revive the country’s economy due to global economic slowdown.

Thus, he raised the question as to why Dr Mahathir wanted to create uncertainties in the political situation of Malaysia when Muhyddin is doing a good job steering the country forward.

Hence, Abdul Karim was perplexed as to why Dr Mahathir nominated Shafie to become the prime minister candidate when there is a good prime minister in place now. —DayakDaily