Seputeh member of Parliament Teresa Kok who is in hot soup over her Chinese New Year video clip, said those criticising her had twisted the actual meaning of the clip.
She said those people were leaders who were bankrupt of political ideas.
“They can no longer appreciate political humour and instead are raising racial issues to cover up for their failure in administrating the nation,” she said in a press statement, Tuesday.
Kok said her video did not touch on the Lahad Datu intrusion nor did she mock the Malaysian army over the incident. She stressed that the video had only touched on the episode in Nov last year where a Taiwanese man was shot dead while his wife kidnapped.
“There was no dialogue that made fun of or mocked the performance of our security forces who defended the nation during the intrusion,” she said.
She claimed that the criticism against her by Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal is only to play up racial issues and provoke the army’s anger towards her.
“His response also proved that he is not bothered about security matters which has been the concern of Sabahans and tourists from all over the world. For a federal minster from Sabah, his respond is very irresponsible,” she said.
She said claims that she had insulted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor were also baseless as their names were not even mentioned in the video clip.
“How can UMNO leaders simply create something that does not exist?” she asked.
Kok had also denied that she had degraded the Malays in the country, adding that the 'Onederful Malaysia' video clip had merely highlighted the weakness in several UMNO leaders.
She also called on those who had criticised her over the video clip to better understand Mandarin and Cantonese before calling for action to be taken against her.
“Understand the languages first before making baseless accusation as it can cause racial tension,” she added.
Kok also claimed that those criticising her simply wanted to divert the people’s attention from the real issues plaguing the country.
The 12-minutes video, in Mandarin and Cantonese, portrayed Teresa as a Feng Shui host, interviewing three panelists regarding CNY and their feng shui predictions.
The panelists in the video poked fun about a variety of issues such as the rising cost of living in Malaysia and the current system of education, among others.
Meanwhile, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the video clip was done in bad taste and had caused unwanted chaos.
He claimed Kok had provoked the public’s anger with her 'kiasu' attitude and has put down the country's image by alleging that everything done by the government was wrong.
Astro Awani
Tue Feb 04 2014
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