Malaysian Chinese Muslim Convert Calls Non-Muslims “Harbi” And Malay PH Supporters “Barua” After Election

Two words did a lot of work the day after election night. “Barua” — lackey — aimed at Malay PH supporters. “Harbi” — enemy of Islam — aimed at non-Muslims. The post got 19,000 likes within a few hours.

Instagram: @lokesiewfook/Harakah Daily

In Brief

Mohd Ridhuan Tee called Malay PH supporters "barua" and Chinese Malaysians "harbi" following Pakatan Harapan's Negeri Sembilan election defeat.
The post gained 19,300 likes within three hours, with comments near-uniformly supportive and no significant pushback visible.

Subscribe to our FREE Newsletter, or Telegram and WhatsApp channels for the latest stories and updates.

Less than a day after Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) defeat in the Negeri Sembilan state election, academic and commentator Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah posted a message on Facebook.

He called Malay PH supporters “barua” — a Malay slur meaning lackey or stooge — and referred to Chinese Malaysians using the term “harbi,” an Islamic jurisprudence word historically used to describe non-Muslims considered hostile to Islam.

The post, published on Sunday (2 August), had accumulated 19,300 likes, 1,300 comments and 1,600 shares within three hours.

In the post, Tee, whose Chinese name is Tee Chuan Seng, argued that Malay PH supporters were publicly defending the coalition’s losses while Chinese political figures stayed quiet and planned their next move.

Sad to see — when they lose, these Malay lackeys of PH are the ones upfront defending the ultra-kiasu harbi’s defeat in N9. Harbi just relaxes at home planning new strategy.

He added that the same Chinese figures would have been “proudly upfront” had PH won.

Tee did not name any individual in the post.

What The Words Mean

“Barua” is widely understood in Malaysia as a deeply derogatory term.

Its use against Malay members of a political coalition carries a specific charge — that they are servants of another community’s interests.

“Harbi” carries heavier weight.

In classical Islamic jurisprudence, the term refers to a non-Muslim living in a state of war or hostility with the Muslim community.

Its casual deployment as an ethnic label for Chinese Malaysians moves the framing from political disagreement into religious categorisation.

Neither term is new to Malaysian political discourse.

Both have appeared in Tee’s previous writings and public statements.

View on Threads

One Voice In The Comments

Comments on the post were near-uniformly supportive.

Replies including “barua is real,” “well said,” and “betul tu” — meaning “that’s right” — dominated the thread.

No significant pushback was visible in the public comments at the time of writing.

Tee, a Chinese convert to Islam, has 178,000 followers on his public Facebook page.

The PAS supporter is a former university academic and a regular columnist who has written extensively on race and religion in Malaysia.

His identity as a Chinese convert has historically given his statements a particular resonance in certain quarters — he is seen as speaking from inside the community he critiques, which his supporters treat as credibility and his critics treat as a performance.

Tee has spent years building a reputation as one of Malaysia’s most vocal defenders of Malay-Muslim supremacy — a position that critics find harder to dismiss precisely because he was not born into it.

@perspektif360 “Kalau ada yang kata saya lebih Melayu dari Melayu, Saya terima sahaja” – Ridhuan Tee Abdullah #Perspektif360 #kualalumpur ♬ original sound – Perspektif 360°