Monday, September 5, 2011

Student denies praising PM's speech in Australia

A Malaysian student, who was at a dinner held for Najib Abdul Razak in Perth, has denied praising the premier’s speech, as reported by national news agency Bernama .


When contacted, the student - who spoke on condition of anoymity as he is on a government scholarship - expressed surprise over the report, as he had made the comments prior to Najib's speech.

He said he had expressed genuine excitement about meeting the prime minister but did not praise the speech as he had not listened to it yet.


"They totally changed and added stuff that we never said. And the whole thing was done before the speech and not after. I feel it is rather silly and unnecessary," he said.
"They ... put in quotes that we actually did not say and altered our words. We did not say anything bad so I don't see why they needed to do that.”

Malaysiakini learnt that the students were asked to write their comments on a piece paper prior to the speech, which was subsequently used to process the Bernama report .
Asked on what he really thought of the speech, he described it as it as "formal" and "nothing special".

"It was a formal event, there was nothing special and the speech was pretty much formulated, promoting 1Malaysia. It was the usual speech," he explained.

Another of the nine students quoted in the report, when contacted via Facebook, also confirmed that additions were made to the quotes but declined to elaborate.

The dinner, announced via the Malaysian Students' Council of Australia Facebook page was held last Saturday at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth.

According to MASCA's facebook invitation, the dinner was open to students who are being sponsored by the Public Service Department, Mara and Petronas.

Also present at the event was Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, and officials from the Malaysian mission.

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