From ‘guru’ to ‘slay’, Gen Z slang colours the Anwar and Zahid exchange

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called himself “Guru” and signed off a Facebook post with “Slayyy”, in a statement widely read as an answer to a swipe from his deputy, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Anwar chose the wording while announcing his arrival in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit. He also expressed the hope that his “anak didik”, or students, would learn from him about how Madani diplomacy is carried out, Malaysiakini reported.

The post followed Zahid’s policy speech at the Umno general assembly on Sept 11, which leaned on the word “guru” while criticising shifts in government policy, among them the petrol subsidy quota.

“Enough, guru. Listen to our voices, guru,” the Umno president said in his speech at the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre, as quoted by Utusan TV.

In the same speech, Zahid said he was confident that Umno and Barisan Nasional could shoulder the responsibility of leading the country better.

The language the two leaders reached for was not confined to the teacher-and-student metaphor. Zahid also used “slay” and “flex” while urging young members to push their ideas forward, before “Slayyy” turned up at the end of Anwar’s post.

Used this way, “guru” works as meme language, a word that normally carries respect turned into a vehicle for a rebuke or a jab. The word itself is not a Gen Z coinage, Sinar Harian noted, but its life in viral phrasing lends the political exchange a different tone.

In Zahid’s remarks, the “guru” is the one being asked to listen to public unease. Anwar took the same title for himself, casting the “anak didik” as those with something to learn from his diplomatic mission.

While the word choice ties the two statements together, Anwar did not name Zahid in his post. Zahid, for his part, did not explicitly name Anwar when he used “guru”, which leaves the exchange a reading drawn from context and the sequence of their statements.