MADANI backers should back off from ridiculing PAS information chief Fadhli Shaari who described Budget 2027 as a “haze budget” because “everything is unclear” during a recent interview with a Singapore news portal in English.
Despite a few grammatical and pronunciation flaws in his reaction given to CNA (Channel News Asia) on the budget tabled by Prime Minister/Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Friday (Oct 9), the very least is that the Pasir Mas MP has put in ample effort to see through his interview in English.
Based on his body language and facial expression which did exude some degree of confidence and comfort, Fadhli should be commended for even attempting to converse in a colonialist language presumably so despised by the rightist fraternity.
Filtering the purpose and intent of the interview, the former Youth chief of the Islamist party should be commended as succinctly put it by Threader Rauf Sharuddin (@mr.raufv): “Pasir Mas can speak London. Don’t laugh at him.”
“At least he knows when to use ‘come’ and ‘comes’,” praised iconic television host, actor, singer and media personality Datuk Aznil Nawawi who is widely known as Pak Nil while non-Malay Vidhya Sankari Malaiman (@vidztamom.15) described Fadhli’s English as “not all over the place”.
“English is not our first language ye … and if you’re good in English that doesn’t mean that you’re wholly proficient … it’s just a language … just another language … don’t equate knowledge with just English language proficiency.”
This is when one commenter drew comparison between Fadhli’s satisfactory level of English while taking a jibe at the way some Chinese MPs speak the national language.
As another observed, there is no need to laugh at the PAS lawmaker given “many Japanese and Korean graduates aren’t fluent in English yet they’re good engineers”.
As pointed out by seemingly pro-opposition Threader Muhamad Hafiz (@icecube83), it has been a praiseworthy progress by Fadhli by to be able to converse comfortably especially for someone “who grew up studying tahfiz and Quranic since young prior to continuing his MBA degree”.”
“To the PH (Pakatan Harapan) leadership, realise that if your ceplos (slang for cybertroopers) continue to act foolishly, this will only make more Malaysians spit on PH,” he hit out at derogatory feedback which undermined the 46-year-old Kelantanese politician.
With regard to brickbats hurled at him by the pro-Madani faction, this could be due to their political rivalry with the Islamist party and lack of understanding on the role of check and balance role which is somehow expected from the opposition camp – or simply because they are envious of Fadhli’s ability to string a sentence or two in English.
At the very outset, it will be most impossible for Madani backers to expect opposition lawmakers to say something which is music to their ears.
“Fadhli has been a MP for eight years yet still can’t get rid of his unsclear [sic] source of budget funds,” self-proclaimed sarcasm practitioner Saifullah Adnan(@saifullah_albotakiri_) took a pot shot at Fadhli.
In the Finance Ministry’s (MOF) portal, all information about where the money for the budget comes from is complete while the revenue estimations have been broken down one by one. Just need to read and all questions will be answered.
Really idi*tic if he’s unsclear [sic] at the very outset without even taking the first step (to understand.
The retort prompted political attack on both Fadhli and PAS with one seemingly childish netizen even went to the extent of trying to run down the former by displaying his SPM certificate whereby he scored a “C6” in his English paper.
At the end of the day, as one commenter aptly put it, “it boils down to practice makes perfect”.
“Let him pick up English slowly. At least he has shown the initiative.” – Oct 11, 2026
Main image credit: Kobee Mainoo (@anasmainoo04)//Threads
