Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed has continued to question Cathay Pacific's motive for offering fee waivers in conjunction with the 14th general election.

Responding to a Malaysiakini report this morning, Nur Jazlan tweeted: "If the Malaysia general election offer is a 'business-as-usual' thing then Malaysians should look forward to Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali and Christmas waivers too and not just a one-off thing.

"What about offers to other voters in other countries during their general elections?"

This portal reported that Cathay Pacific's offer to waive rebooking fees for Malaysians travelling during GE14 was merely to serve its customers better, thus prompting the response from Nur Jazlan.

The Hong Kong-based airline had announced on March 23 that it would waive rebooking fees for Malaysian citizens if their travel dates coincide with the election date. 

“If the election date falls within the passenger's inbound or outbound travel date, one change is permitted for all tickets, including those with restrictions on date change,” it said, but this is on the condition that any changes are made within seven days from the announcement of GE14.  

Nur Jazlan responded to reports about Cathay Pacific's offer yesterday saying, "Didn’t know that regime change is part of their business plan." 

When contacted about Nur Jazlan's comments insinuating that Cathay Pacific was trying to effect a regime change in Malaysia, a spokesperson had said: “We are aware of customers’ current needs and would like to provide more value and flexibility to our passengers when they choose to fly with us."

'Be fair lah'

However, many netizens did not appear to take Nur Jazlan's comments kindly and criticised the deputy minister.

Several of them pointed out that the dates of festive seasons are known ahead of time whereas the date for the 14th general election has still yet to be announced.

"YB, (the dates for) Chinese New Year, Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, Merdeka and Malaysia Day are all fixed and known to everyone. Can your cabinet fix the election day every five years? To date, it is still not announced. Stop thinking and arguing like a schoolboy.” read one tweet.

"GE13 I was flying to Hong Kong on election eve, do u think I will burn my tickets? I have planned nine months ahead. Not everybody is so free like politicians... We need to cari makan (make a living) also... Be fair lah," said one Twitter user going by the handle @csoonyew.

Another netizen going by the handle @riezforester said it ought to be the government's responsibility to ensure that all its citizens could vote.

"So why is that a minister, of all people, gets upset that people can now cancel their travel plans and get refunded in order to vote?" he asked.