PAP Aljunied GRC Ex-Candidate Shared Meme About Woman in PA Saga & Said People ‘Misunderstood’

By
Zhi Hao
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The People’s Action Party may generally maintain a squeaky clean image, but they’re not entirely without controversy.

Or at least, that’s how the synopsis goes, what with the recent wedding standee fiasco and now a PAP ex-candidate’s ‘misunderstood’ intention.

PAP Aljunied GRC Ex-Candidate Shared Meme About Woman in PA Saga & Said People ‘Misunderstood’

Lest you’re unaware, PAP Ex-Candidate Shamsul Kamar had previously shared a meme by Facebook page Fabrications About the PAP.

It appears to have since been taken off his official Facebook page, though there have been reposted versions such as this one:

Featuring a picture of Sarah Bagharib, the woman at the forefront of the PAP wedding standee controversy, as well as a photo of a Workers’ Party (WP) team conducting house visits, the meme is accompanied by the caption:

“For all to decide … Everything happens for a reason but let’s not be divisive.”

Though implicit, a masked woman in the Workers’ Party photo is implied to be Ms Sarah herself.

Suffice to say; Mr Shamsul’s act has attracted quite a bit of furore.

Some Netizens, for instance, pointed out how the masked woman is not Ms Sarah.

Others wondered about the exact point of the post.

“Seriously, sharing a post by FAP and acting as though it’s a fact. That’s a real new low…,” said one commenter.

“This post perpetuates fake news and has caused distress to the woman mistakenly identified in the photo (I am her friend). If you wish to have any remaining semblance of decency you should stop gaslighting others and admit that reposting this divisive post from a troll page was a mistake,” the commenter wrote.

And Mr Shamsul has now stepped up to clarify that the message was, in fact, ‘misunderstood’.

Apparent Message

Instead of a rather accusatory implication, Mr Shamsul expressed that his main intention was actually to unite everyone during this pandemic period.

He also reiterated that he had only reshared the post, and not created it.

“If you have read my other posts especially on my public page, this has been a consistent message I have been advocating to fight this pandemic together,” he added.

“Like most people, I do share other posts that I see on my feed from time to time. I did not mention that it was Sarah nor anyone else and it didn’t cross my mind to do so,” he added.

Meanwhile, the masked woman in the affiliated has since stated that she’s not Miss Sarah.

She has also requested for Mr Shamsul and the Fabrications About the PAP page to take down the post.

Hari Raya Deco

Ms Sarah and her husband married in 2017, and just like any couple, they had taken wedding photos in traditional Malay garb.

Recently, however, two of her friends alerted her of this standee that looks exactly like one of her wedding images, except that the faces have been cut out so that people can take images of them in the Malay garb.

What’s worse is that neither the couple nor the photographer has been approached to give consent for the use of the image.

Other than blatant copyright infringement, Ms Sarah also took issue with how the image is used; to put things into context, it’s like people celebrating Chinese New Year in wedding dresses, or people celebrating Christmas in wedding gowns.

She posted the incident on her Instagram, and also contacted the relevant people who could’ve been involved in this.

After the affiliated personnel caught wind of the incident, they swiftly issued an apology to the couple.

The constituency office also stated that it will be more mindful about such events going forward.

Featured Image: Facebook (Fabrications about the PAP; Shamsul Kamar)

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]