Malaysia: Johor crown prince ‘fires shots’ at right wing activists in parody video

Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim. Image via YouTube

 7th November 2016

A HIGH-PROFILE crown prince in the Malaysian state of Johor released a parody footage of himself firing several handgun rounds at a group of right-wing “activists” who staged pro-government protest on Saturday.

The 23-second video has gone viral since it emerged on social media on Sunday, gaining more than one million views in less than 24 hours of its posting on the official Facebook page of the Johor Southern Tigers, a football team overseen by the Johor palace.

The parody kicks off with a group of seven men dressed in red shirts and black masks encircling one of their members who is being “beaten” with a wooden stick and a rock in a display of strength that lampooned a martial arts stunt by “Gerakan Merah” red-shirted activists who protested outside the office of a local news portal.

Seconds later, the scene pans to the crown prince, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, who – wearing a blue t-shirt and aviator sunglasses – raises a handgun and shoots five rounds at the group of men before looking at the camera and shrugging in a gesture against their actions.

SEE ALSO: Malaysia: Asian rights groups demand probe into threats against protest leader

According to Free Malaysia Today, the prince in the message accompanying the video said he was on neither the side of the red or yellow shirts, the two major protest movements in the country.

“I am on the side of the Bangsa Johor’s (Johorian People) where it symbolizes unity. As unity is the formula of this nation moving forward, not violence and hatred,” he said.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Violence and hatred is not going to make this nation a better place. Stay positive. Lots of love.”

On Saturday, 700 supporters of the pro-government ‘Red Shirt’ movement activists staged a protest outside the MalaysiaKini office in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur to rally against funding the news site received from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), an international charity organisation that provides funding to civil society groups.

The red shirt group – led my Jamal Yunos, a division leader from the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party – alleges that MalaysiaKini was an agent of foreign intervention, as the OSF is linked to billionaire and business magnate George Soros.

Soros, a Hungarian-born Jewish hedge fund manager listed one of the top 30 richest people in the world, is a persona non grata in the Muslim majority country due to wide speculation of his alleged role in the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

SEE ALSO: Bersih roadshow convoys ‘see red’ as opposing Red Shirts stir up trouble

The red shirt group is also defending embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak’s leadership following calls from opposition groups for him to step down amid a multi-billion dollar scandal involving the1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund.

Jamal’s ilk is supposedly a counter-movement to the Coalition of Free Elections (Bersih 2.0), which is planning to hold the mass Bersih 5 rally on November 19 to demand Najib’s resignation.

In recent months, the red shirt movement has often resorted to intimidation and scare tactics towards Bersih 2.0 leaders and supporters in a bid to stop them from proceeding with the planned rally.