KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah has reactivated her Twitter account in an attempt to dissuade the police from acting against those accused of insulting her.
Tunku Azizah had deleted her @cheminahsayang account on Wednesday and triggered the #AmpunTuanku movement to convince her to return to the social media platform she had left due to suspected online harrassment.
The Raja Permaisuri reiterated today that she did not leave the platform because she was angered by comments about her but added that her return was motivated by her displeasure with police action against those accused of insulting her.
“As I said, I deactivated not because I was upset by comments made but for personal reasons... but today I am truly upset that police have detained those people... through the years my husband and I have never made any police report on the bad things said about us... it’s a free country,” she wrote.
Tunku Azizah said she was shocked and disturbed to learn that some have been arrested for allegedly insulting her, prompting her to reactivate her account to demonstrate to the police that there is no need for them to react to the complaints about her departure from Twitter.
The Raja Permaisuri then urged the public to not overreact.
“Chill, people... like my daughters always tell me... ‘Chill, Mama,’ whenever I am upset!” she wrote.
“Although the whole time I and my husband have been demeaned, accused, mocked, and insulted in cari.com, we both have not lodged any police reports... and I have never been sad when I read this — in fact, I laugh — because Allah knows who I am!”
Yesterday, Tunku Azizah’s daughter, Tengku Puteri Afzan Aminah Hafizatullah Al-Sultan Abdullah, shared a social media post in which she said the Raja Permaisuri had not deleted her Twitter account due to alleged online harassment.
Instead, she said Tunku Azizah told her that she had done it for “personal reasons” and appealed for the public not to lodge police reports against those that other online users have identified as responsible for her departure.
The appeal came too late, however, as the police have already opened several sedition investigations in response to reports lodged about remarks against the Raja Permaisuri, including Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) activist Khalid Mohd Ismath who was arrested yesterday.
Tunku Azizah came under unprovoked attack over her tweets promoting optimism, positivity and good relations prior to the deactivation of her @cheminahsayang account.
During the Merdeka Day parade, she was also criticised on Twitter for taking photographs of the event, which she later explained was done on the instructions of her husband, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
