KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — Penang lawmaker RSN Rayer said today that Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had shown indirect support of yesterday’s cow head incident with his “apathetic” response to the act.

The upset Seri Delima assemblyman told The Malay Mail Online that the Zahid’s nonchalant attitude towards such a “despicable” act was “disconcerting and irresponsible” as the Home Minister should be doing his duty to keep the nation peaceful.

“He was speaking like he is an Umno thug, not the home minister,” said Rayer, when contacted today.

Rayer found the severed head of a cow at the gates of his home in Penang when he was leaving to a temple for prayers yesterday morning.

A cow is deemed a sacred creature to Hindus. Slaughter of cows and consumption of beef is strictly prohibited in the religion.

The incident is believed possibly linked to the uproar Rayer caused with his “Umno celaka” remarks in the Penang state assembly last month.

In his response yesterday, Zahid offered his sympathy to the Penang assemblyman but said it was the price he had to pay for having a “mulut celupar” (loose cannon or big mouth).

“Blaming me by saying I have ‘mulut celupar’ instead of condemning them, is tacitly encouraging such behaviour,” Rayer fired back today.

According the lawmaker, he had uttered “Umno celaka” in the Penang assembly after members of the ruling party held a demonstration in Seberang Perai where they allegedly uttered “inflammatory remarks and disparaging statements”.

“That’s the reason I said ‘Umno celaka’,” he said.

Rayer said Zahid had failed to act on “countless inciteful remarks” from various Umno leaders, including those involved in right-wing civil society movements like Perkasa.

He added that Putrajaya has also “ignored” all forms of harassment against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in the last six years of Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) administration in the island state.

“They tried to send a coffin, cakes made to look like human faeces, bras and whatnot... the home ministers, then and now, have all let the perpetrators go,” related Rayer, condemning this as “the double standards”.   

“If Umno wanted to react to my remark they should have just shouted back, not resort to such a despicable act… imagine the horror my wife and my children felt when they saw the head of a cow outside our house,” he said.

On June 19, Rayer was due to be charged with sedition over the “celaka Umno” remark on May 20, but Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail ordered the prosecutors to defer his case.

On the same day, however, 15 men were jointly charged under Section 448 of the Penal Code for intruding and trespassing into the state legislative assembly on May 21.