KLUANG MP Wong Shu Qi had her name mangled by Umno protesters who today rallied against her recent remarks that Jawi script was used in the past to write pornographic books.

A video of the protest on Umno Tebrau Youth’s Facebook page shows the crowd gathered outside the DAP lawmaker’s office in Taman Tasek Kluang shouting a vulgar Malay word which sounds similar to Shu Qi’s name. 

The word, which begins with “p” and ends with “i”, is used as a swear word and refers to the female genitalia.

The protesters were egged on by Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki who shouted Wong’s surname and left the crowd to respond. The crowd shouted the swear word instead of saying Wong’s actual name.

Wong in a speech to a Chinese audience at the Tiong Hwa Kluang Association on August 9 had tried to explain how khat calligraphy was used as a script to write various sorts of texts. Her attempt at explaining khat came amid a divisive debate over the government’s plan to introduce khat to Year Four vernacular school pupils in the Bahasa Melayu syllabus.

In trying to explain that khat had been used in a similar way as romanised script now, Wong cited examples that included a mention of pornographic reading materials. She had also cited Christian writings that had used Jawi script in the 19th century.

A video of Wong speaking was posted to social media and she was accused of insulting Jawi. Wong subsequently issued a statement, saying her quotes were taken out of context and that she was trying to find examples that could be understood by her audience. 

Wong also said she was trying to debunk the perception that khat was being introduced by the Education Ministry as an “Islamisation tactic”.

The government has now decided that the introduction of khat to Year Four vernacular school pupils would be optional with parents and parent-teacher associations of vernacular schools left to decide its implementation. – August 17, 2019.