CELEBRITY chef Redzuawan Ismail, popularly known as Chef Wan, has criticised a news portal for twisting his latest Instagram post to make him appear to be politically aligned.

Sharing a snapshot of the article, Chef Wan said the report intentionally misrepresented an earlier Instagram post where he stated his disinterest in taking political sides.

The portal lifted an article from Malaysiakini titled “Chef Wan snubs both sides of the political divide, points to Dr M’s fate”, and replaced it with a controversial headline which read “All I want for Christmas is a New PM: Outraged by PM Najib’s senseless attacks on ex-PM, Chef Wan the latest celebrity to demand change”.

In response, Chef Wan again took to Instagram, declaring that he was being “slandered” and that the article had twisted and sensationalised his words.

“We who speak the truth and advise nicely pulak are being blamed and even slandered!” said the Singapore-born Malaysian.

Most commentators were sympathetic with the celebrity chef, with some even urging him to sue the portal, which was banned by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission in 2015.

The article in question was accompanied by an Instagram post that Chef Wan shared on Christmas Day of a red T-shirt with the wordings: “All I want for Christmas is a new prime minister”.

However, he clarified that he was not interested to take sides in Malaysian politics.

In the original posting, he said there was no need for some politicians to behave with vicious hatred and vengeance due to political differences, especially towards former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“I find such behaviour so disgusting,” he said.

The post attracted more than 8,600 likes and 400 comments from his followers.

Chef Wan has also said both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan tried to persuade him to campaign for them. 

“Elephants want to fight with elephants, why do we want to get stuck in the middle? (Gajah dgn gajah nak berperang kita nak tersepit untuk apa?)”

Chef Wan is the latest local celebrity to become embroiled in controversy for voicing their opinions on the state of the country’s politics and governance.

Jazz queen Sheila Majid earned a scolding from Rizal Mansor, an aide to the wife of the prime minister, for taking to Twitter to vent her political views earlier this month. 

Chef Wan has more than 383,000 followers on Instagram. – December 27, 2017.