Viral Tweet Draws Contrast Between M'sian And S'porean Celebrities During Pandemic
Malaysians couldn't stay silent seeing local celebrities flouting COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) time after time, while Singaporean celebrities are promoting vaccination take-up in the island country.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 04 May 2021, 06:18 PM
Over the past few weeks, Malaysia has seen a slew of local celebrities grabbing headlines for allegedly breaching COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Actress and entrepreneur Neelofa flouted the rules once during her wedding on 27 March, and another time during her 'honeymoon' in Langkawi. Last weekend, she and her husband allegedly visited a carpet shop in Nilai, breaching the interstate travel ban under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).
Despite her flippant attitude towards SOPs, Neelofa's followers on Instagram ballooned to 8.6 million, making her the celebrity with the most followers in Malaysia, reported Kosmo!
Neelofa's Instagram followers outgrew songstress Dato Sri Siti Nurhaliza, who has 8.2 million followers.
Siti was recently embroiled in controversy as well, as it was alleged that guests at her son's tahnik ceremony had travelled across states to attend on 26 April. Police are currently investigating the matter.
That is not all: on 29 April, a group of celebrities attended an event in Kuala Lumpur and viral photos showed that many of them did not observe the 1m physical distancing rule.
Among those who attended the event were Caprice, Ashraf Muslim, Heliza Helmi, Iman Troye, Mawar Rashid, and PU Hafiz.
Meanwhile in Singapore, local celebrities were cast in a public service announcement (PSA) video to encourage vaccination take-up in the country.
This has led to netizens drawing comparisons between celebrities of the neighbouring nations.
A Malaysian Twitter user said, "Singaporean celebrities promoting vaccine. Malaysian celebrities promotes (sic) how to breach the SOP. Repetitively."
The tweet — carrying a video featuring two characters from TV series Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd — has since gone viral with over 13,300 retweets and 12,900 likes.
In the PSA video, Phua Chu Kang, played by actor Gurmit Singh, tries to convince Rosie, played by actress Irene Ang, to get vaccinated.
"That is the difference between people with brain and those without," replied a user to the viral tweet who compared celebrities between the two countries
One netizen added, "You want celebrities to promote vaccines? Haram. Everyone (celebrities) is busy breaking the SOPs. They're competing with each other to see who's the most invisible, richest artiste. Anyone who violates SOPs should be banned from TV."
"It is so sad to see our nation like this," lamented a user, while another said, "The attitude of many YBs in Malaysia is the same. Always wanting to run amok, not even thinking about the pandemic."
