Hunger strike for Palestine hit by online smear campaign

QR codes displayed next to hunger striker M Mythreyar are not to seek donations but are links to petitions organised by the Malaysian chapter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

A Malaysian collective supporting Palestine, Gegar Amerika, spoke out on X in defence of Mythreyar who has been targeted by an apparent social media smear campaign accusing him of soliciting donations.

“He has not asked for a single sen throughout his strike. So to the Zionist apologists, why don’t you support the BDS campaigns?” said the collective.

Malaysiakini’s checks found that scanning the QR codes brings users to Change.org pages including petitions against US-based investment company Blackrock, US-based construction company Caterpillar, and to ban Israel from the Olympic Games.

Mythreyar (above) is on his seventh day of consuming only limited liquids.

He has moved to various locations in downtown Kuala Lumpur on a protest fast against the sale of Malaysian Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB) shares to a consortium that includes infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

GIP is in the process of being acquired by Blackrock, an investment giant that has come under the radar of boycotters for Palestine. They accused Blackrock of having large investments in firms linked to the Israeli arms industry, among others.

Besides the claims that Mythreyar was collecting funds via QR codes, there were other posts by accounts with large followings, claiming the 46-year-old was using the money to pay for his car repairs.

This was after some social media users posted photos of Mythreyar missing from his protest spot and accused him of breaking his fast.

His strike has also gained a political boost in the form of support from Bersatu MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, who held a press conference in Parliament yesterday to express solidarity.

The critics, who do not seem to be pro-Israel, also accused Mythreyar of being a political tool to attack the Madani government.

Others also took issue with his earlier comments urging the government to remove the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka from a gazetted list of terror groups.

Determined to continue strike until Thursday

Asked about the allegations in the Gegar Malaysia WhatsApp group, Mythreyar said the dispute was between the car’s owner and the mechanic.

He clarified that he helped a friend send the car to the mechanic and he did not own the car nor owed the mechanic money.

He also said he is determined to continue his strike until Thursday.

Earlier, Mythreyar, who is from Tanjung Malim, Perak was put on a glucose drip after a check by a medical officer. He consumes water once every four hours.

MAHB sale to be completed in Q3

Despite his efforts, yesterday the Finance Ministry said it expected to complete the MAHB sale in the third quarter of the year.

The ministry added that the sale needs to be approved by at least 90 percent of MAHB’s existing shareholders.

MAHB’s takeover offer is a commercial transaction submitted by a consortium led by two of MAHB’s current shareholders, namely Khazanah Nasional Bhd and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).

If the offer is accepted and agreed upon by the other MAHB shareholders, Khazanah will own 40 percent of the shares in MAHB and EPF will acquire 30 percent ownership, while the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) and GIP will hold another 30 percent of the shares.

Hunger strikes are a form of political protest used worldwide, some ending with starvation and death. Some protestors refuse only solids while others partake in a “dry hunger strike” where they also avoid consuming fluids.

In 2018, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who was arrested in Crimea in 2014, completed a 145-day hunger strike - one of the longest recorded.

He was demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners held by Russia and agreed to take oral nutritional supplements two months into the strike after he was threatened to be force-fed.

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