The person who started the online petition urging the removal of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s portrait from his alma mater University of Nottingham in the UK has received threats to herself and her family.

A Facebook user, Ab Jalil Backer, has urged Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed to take action against Cassandra Chung, the student at the University of Nottingham who started the petition.

Not only that, he has also urged the public to provide him with details of Chung’s family.

“Whoever knows anything about this student’s family, do give me their information.

“We want to see just how pure this family is who can afford to send their child overseas,” he said in a Facebook post.

He described Chung’s petition as an insult which cannot be accepted by the country, and reminding that Najib was democratically elected.

Chung’s act of starting such a petition overseas and making false accusations, he said, is akin to an act of betrayal to the country.

“One day, when she comes back, it is not impossible for her to sabotage the country if she disagrees with the country’s leadership then,” he said.

Chung had started the petition on March 8, seeking at least 100 signatures to back a motion to be submitted to the Malaysian Society at the University of Nottingham.

Less than 30 minutes before the 11.59pm deadline for the motion to be submitted yesterday, the petition had already garnered 2,252 signatures.

The motion, which urges the Malaysian Society to lobby for the removal of Najib’s two-metre high portrait from one of the walls of its campuses, is meant to be a sign of protest against Najib’s refusal to properly explain the deposits of RM2.6 billion into his personal bank accounts.

If the motion, backed by the petition, is approved, it will be debated during the varsity’s Malaysian Society’s annual general meeting (AGM) on March 16.

“We’ve already submitted the motion and as of now, we will not be withdrawing it.

“Right now, we are waiting on the Malaysian Society to approve the motion for debate at next week’s AGM,” Chung said, as reported by the Malaysian Insider.

She also said that she was unsure if the Malaysian Society would accept the motion as they have to remain neutral, even though they were usually “incredibly open” to most suggestions.

While she is fearful for her family’s safety following Ab Jalil’s Facebook post, she has also been informed that the High Commission (of Malaysia) was looking for her number.

“I was shaking to the point I ended up getting only two hours of sleep that night,” she said.

However, the high commission has not yet contacted her, she added.