KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Singapore's Channel 5 and comedian Najip Ali both offered their apologies today over a segment last week that mocked Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Mediacorp chief customer officer Debra Soon and Najip acknowledged in a joint statement posted on the broadcaster’s website that the programme shown last week was “in poor taste and offensive”.
Channel 5 is a station within the Mediacorp stable.
“Channel 5 and the production team behind OK Chope! wish to sincerely apologise to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak for a segment on last week’s episode,” Soon said.
“We have thus pulled it from repeat telecast with immediate effect. We apologise unreservedly for this mistake.”
In the offending show, Najip hosted a portion in which audience members were invited to complete the sentence, “Najib slams ….. for threatening Malaysia's progress”, and received various responses, some of which drew complaints here.
Najip also happens to be a jury member on the Maharaja Lawak Mega 2017 comedy show shown here.
In the joint statement, he said later realised his insensitivity and callousness during the segment.
“I would like to apologise unreservedly to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. I beg his forgiveness and that of my viewers and friends,” he said.
The Malaysian Artistes Association (Seniman) yesterday demanded apologies from both over the show and threatened to report both to Malaysian police if they did not comply.
