KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz appealed to Malaysians against condemning rapper Wee Meng Chee, or Namewee over his videos which have touched on on-going social issues, most notably the controversy surrounding Johor principal Siti Inshah Mansor.
Namewee (picture) had allegedly produced a music video containing racial slurs which were directed towards the said school principal, who has been accused of inciting racial remarks herself during an official school function some months back.
His video had resulted in huge controversy where several Malay rights groups including Perkasa had demanded that he be charged for sedition.
“I think this young man, Namewee has been grossly misunderstood, and misrepresented by the mainstream media. I do not think Namewee intended or wants to get involved in politics, we should not be dragging him to something he does not want to get involved on,” the Minister in the Prime Minister’s department told reporters today.
“He is young. If he does something wrong don’t just jump the gun and come to your own conclusion from what other people say,” Nazri said.
Namewee came to Parliament earlier today to meet Nazri to explain about his new 1 Malaysia film project, titled Nasi Lemak 2.0, as well as difficulties in obtaining government grants to fund the project.
“I am a patriotic Malaysian. I have always shown my love for my country through many of my online youtube videos and I even made a special DVD documentary called ‘I want to go home’...sadly no one knows this because the mainstream media always chooses to highlight my
controversial videos, and made me into something which I am not, like a hantu (ghost),” said Namewee.
Nazri reiterated his stand that no actions would be taken against Namewee, despite pressure from several Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs demanding that Namewee be punished just like how Siti Inshah was punished.
“The law is the law, it is quite clear. The only person that can take action against him is the principal herself, under the existing Communication Act. It is up to her, but till today the teacher has not taken any action. If the teacher does not want to take action, what right does any other party have?” said Nazri.
The DAP has demanded that the government slap criminal charges on Siti Inshah for citing “racial unrest” with her statements against the Indian and Chinese communities in August.
Several DAP elected representatives, led by party adviser Lim Kit Siang had sent a memorandum addressed to Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in Parliament on December 1, calling on the government to stop dithering on the issue and to take immediate action against the school principal.
The August 12 incident had sparked off an uproar in public and the Najib Administration came under fire when it failed to take speedy action against the school principal.
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