5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Our New Defence Minister, ‘Mic Drop’ Mat Sabu

By Imelda Priveta  •  in Listicle
Thirsty for JUICE content? Quench your cravings on our Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp
(Source: MyNewsHub)

I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard of the name Haji Mohamad bin Sabu by now (better known as Mat Sabu), who is our new Defence Minister in the cabinet. His ‘fame’ was sparked by a video of him dropping the mic after ending his speech, which went viral on social media. Check it out here:

However, there are few things I bet you didn’t know about this adorable new member in the cabinet. So, let’s educate ourselves on the man who is going to be responsible for the defence of our beloved country.

1. He can cook (well!) 

(Source: Mohd Nazri Abdullah)

Yes, Mat Sabu graduated in Culinary Arts from Institut Teknologi Mara, currently known as Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) before stepping into politics.

Before the elections, Tun Dr. Mahathir visited Mat Sabu’s residence where he cooked a range of dishes all by himself such as mutton rice, curry chicken and fried mutton nampla. According to FMT, the Prime Minister approved of his cooking abilities by saying:

“I can vouch that his cooking is very good, because I tasted it when I was invited to his house. It was so delicious. If he is out of a job, he can become a chef.”

Even his BFF Lim Guan Eng mentioned that he loves Mat Sabu’s fish head curry.

2. He’s one humorous man and Malaysians love it

(Source: @AidaSue)

His funny personality made him the king of memes in Malaysia. He even has his own fan club now, where they post all the hilarious memes and speeches he has given. Not only that, he has been trending on twitter for three consecutive days alongside his BFF Lim Guan Eng.

Check out some of our favourite memes of him here.

3. He’s well known for his public speaking abilities

If you have not seen his entertaining yet powerful speeches, take a look at this (it’s my personal favourite):

Mat Sabu not only knows his facts well but the way he delivers it to the people is quite captivating, which makes the ‘rakyat’ interested to listen.

His speeches are instrumental in making common people understand the issues faced by the country, which is what we youths nowadays crave. Political news usually bore us but with ‘Mat Sabu’ trending, more youths are aware of the situation that we are going through. Yes, even if they just “came for the memes”.

4. He was detained under ISA twice

(Source: The Star Online)

During his years as a politician in PAS (Malaysian Islamic Party), he was held both times under the Internal Security Act but that did not stop him from smiling and coming back into politics!

His first arrest was in 1984-1986 where he was accused of being involved in an extremist movement. After undergoing investigations for 60 days, he was thrown out from Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, with limited movement for two years.

(Source: TV14)

The next arrest was with Lim Guan Eng and other politicians under Operasi Lalang in 1987-1989. He used his cooking talent during his time in detention, which is also how he became friends with our new Finance Minister. According to Mat Sabu, political tension in Malaysia during that time was because of the racial issues between MCA and UMNO.

However, he is now all clean and ready to serve our country again.

5. He has been changing the game in politics racially

For a person who has been in politics for such a long time (since 1975), he sure knows how it runs with such immense experience.

He started off by joining ABIM (Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia) in 1975 and moved on to PAS in 1981. He then started winning parliament seats at Nilam Puri when he moved to Kelantan in the 1990’s election. Since then, he has won in the elections for three terms at Kubang Kerian and Kuala Kedah consecutively.

In 2015, he decided to stray away from PAS and open up his own political party called Amanah with a few of his other friends and was chosen to be the president. His goal is to fight for all Malaysians’ rights as a whole instead of sticking to each other’s races.

Amanah also claimed to be against the implementation of Hudud law (for now?) after joining Pakatan Harapan. “We cannot force Hudud on the rakyat if the majority of them, Muslims and non-Muslims, don’t agree on it. And we can’t force it’s implementation if it clashes with our Constitution,” he answered when questioned by the media in Sept 2015.

Besides that, he was very involved in the BERSIH movement as well. It was during BERSIH 2.0 that he got injured when his legs got ran over by an authority’s vehicle.

We wish him the best of luck in his new job! What do you think of Mat Sabu as Defence Minister?

Juice WhatsApp banner

For more news about GE14: