SW1M wades into Sharifah-Bawani debate
(*All quotes are verbatim)
Suara Wanita 1 Malaysia (SW1M) has come galloping to the rescue of its president Sharifah Zohra Jabeen in the increasingly bitter argument over Sharifah's bullying of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) student Bawani KS.
The little known NGO waded into the argument by releasing a statement on its Facebook page on Tuesday denouncing the student for telling 'fairy tales'.
The barely coherent and grammatically awful statement, issued by a page administrator calling herself 'Mis Natrah', led off with the phrase that has, since yesterday, become a standing joke among Malaysian Netizens: Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Continuing Sharifah's animal-themed rant from the now infamous video, Natrah said her statement was to "make's to stop the barking".
"THE FORUM IS ABOUT WOMEN & CHILD, AND WHY BAVANI STOOD UP AND TELL'S FAIRY TALES? WE ARE NOT THE GOVERNMENT. WE ARE INDEPENDENT NGO'S. AND WE DID LISTEN TO HER, WHY DOES SHE LISTEN TO US AND RAN AFTER WE TRIES TO EXPLAIN TO HER," Natrah ranted.
"Bawani ran away"
Natrah slammed Bawani for 'running away' in the middle of Sharifah's 'explanation' and accused her of not being able to 'accept the truth'.
"WHO ASKED HER TO RAN AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EXPLANATION? WHO CANNOT ACCEPT THE TRUTH? CUBA? BRAZIL? SPAIN? DO YOU KNOW THAT THE COUNTRY ECONOMIC WISED? DO A RESEARCH, LEARN TO DO THAT, YOU ALL A STUDENT, IF YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE OPPOSITE LEADER AS YOU TO DO, AND I ASKED YOU BACK TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE TALKED, MANNER IS ALL THE NATION PROUD OF, TO SEE ALL OF YOU BEHAVE, I DO RESPECT MADAM SHARIFAH ZOHRA HAVE GUT'S TO TEACH BAVANI A LESSON. BVANI DID DESERVED THAT," she said.
Natrah finished her statement by saying SW1M supports Sharifah Zohra and that there is no need for her to apologise to Bawani, as Bawani needs to learn how 'to respect others'.
(Scroll to the bottom of the article to read the full text of the Facebook post)
Public unimpressed
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the 1,200-plus comments on Natrah's Facebook post were negative, with Malaysians of all stripes slamming both Natrah and Sharifah over what has become a public relations fiasco for Sharifah and SW1M.
Many mocked Natrah's English, while others threatened to report the SW1M Facebook page.
"You're just making a fool of yourself writing this stupid status. Shame on you!" said Facebook user Arifah Abd Rahim.
Meanwhile, Vishnu YP had more brickbats for Sharifah.
"If you stand for women and children, why deny a woman a chance to speak?" he asked.
The SW1M Facebook page has turned into a war zone, with page administrators surfacing posts and videos celebrating last month's distasteful incident.
SW1M has also reserved a special amount of venom for Bersih leader S. Ambiga, putting up posts mocking the civil rights leader.
In retaliation, the page, which has 894 likes, has been bombarded with messages from angry members of the public.
There has also been widespread mockery in other Facebook pages and media channels. Facebook gag group Malaysian Gags has been going to town with memes and posts parodying Sharifah, while controversial moviemaker Namewee has also got in on the act, putting up a YouTube clip poking fun at Sharifah.
Sharifah's troubles began when a video of her berating Bawani went viral earlier this week. The 24-minute clip was taken at a forum titled "Seiringkah mahasiswa dan politik?' (Are graduates and politics aligned?) held at UUM in Sintok, Kedah on Dec 8. Sharifah was the moderator of the forum.
In the clip, Sharifah took offence at Bawani for bringing up Bersih and issues on free education.
Browbeating Bawani for lacking 'education' and 'respect', Sharifah went on to bizzarely equate human problems with those faced by animals before finally telling Bawani to go to another university if she wasn't happy in UUM.
From the response of the past two days, it's obvious that Malaysians are in Bawani's camp, not Sharifah's.
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