“I am a man of principles,” he said in a Facebook post on Sunday, arguing that it was those who gave him the label of apple polisher first, and now of traitor, who were the ones lacking in principles.

“When I wrote the letter praising the Johor Sultan and TMJ (Tunku Mahkota of Johor) for speaking up against corruption, I was called an apple polisher.”

He said he was called an apple polisher again on several other occasions i.e. when he criticised Federal Minister Nazri Aziz for insulting TMJ; when he supported the concept of #BangsaJohor as a means to promote harmony and unity; and when he supported TMJ’s stand to create a single-stream school system.

“Unfortunately, the person who labelled me an apple polisher now calls me a traitor because my opinion differs from that of the Sultan’s.

“If I support (the Sultan and TMJ) it is wrong. If I don’t support them it is also wrong,” he said, adding that he had been informed that he would be investigated by police for having allegedly violated the Sedition Act when he wrote an open letter to the Sultan of Johor recently.

In the open letter, also posted on Facebook, Syed Saddiq had asked that the Sultan reconsider his ban on street demonstrations in Johor.

Saying political demonstrations were a “democratic weapon”, he pleaded with the Sultan to defend the people’s right to demonstrate and express themselves in the wake of major corruption scandals and abuses of power in the country.

He also urged the Johor ruler to view demonstrations as a right provided by the Federal Constitution and international human rights covenants.