Shahidan's 'horror holiday' suggestion draws flak

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Minister in charge of Parliamentary affairs has drawn criticisms from netizens for suggesting there is tourist potential in human trafficking camps near the Malaysian-Thai border.

Shahidan Kassim made the suggestion today after visiting the campsite today and described it as "very nice" and that it had "complete facilities".

"It is the largest camp among the 16 campsites we found and is located around 100m from the border.

"Everything is still intact. There was a surau, a wooden mosque, an house for an imam, vegetable farm and many more. There was also some Thai writing inside the mosque.

"Let tourists see where it all happened. With this as a new tourism spot, it will also deter human trafficking activities from taking place as there will be more people coming in and out," he said, according to Star Online .

Shahidan, who is formerly the menteri besar of Perlis, said he would pass his suggestions to the police and the state government.

Not well received

Word about Shahidan's suggestion spread quickly through Twitter.

One netizen, who writes on Twitter under the handle @nikicheong, decided to give Shahidan's outlandish suggest a benefit of a doubt.

"Just wondering, do you think Shahidan meant 'tourist site' as in like a museum to mark the atrocities? Like holocaust museum etc?" he wrote.

However, most netizens reacted to the news with outrage.

"Ahmad Maslan. Ismail Sabri. Hasan Malek. Shahidan Kassim. The list grows on and on. And we’re supposed to be confident in our 'leadership'?" wrote @klubbkiddkl on Twitter .

"Someone should lock Shahidan in a cage and put him on display in our zoo. Then we can call it a featured attraction," wrote @patricklsk.



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