Muzaffar Jakel, the younger brother of Datuk Faroz Jakel (owner of textile store Jakel) has landed himself in hot waters after he posted a controversial statement on his Instagram.
This came following Jakel’s announcement to reopen its business starting today (Monday, 4th May), in conjunction with the implementation of conditional movement control order (MCO).
In response to a lot of Malaysians (particularly Malays) who condemned their decision to resume operations, Muzaffar uploaded a somewhat degrading remark on social media, saying that he “sympathised” with the people for not understanding the true meaning of standard operating procedure (SOP). Although Muzaffar issued a public apology, the damage had been done
The issue also caught the attention of actor-entrepreneur Datuk Adi Putra. In his latest post on Instagram, the “KL Gangster” star addressed the matter by calling Muzaffar “stupid” for mocking the religion and race. He uploaded a screenshot of his controversial Instagram Story post, along with a caption seemingly to blast at Muzaffar’s action.
“Is there nothing else to do during the fasting month @muzaffarjakel?? We can accept your apology, but it will be difficult for us to forget (what you’ve done). There are 2 things to bear in mind; Don’t play with religion and don’t tease with races. One word for you, STUPID. Bahasa Melayu translation is included in case you don’t understand English,” Adi captioned the post.
Many enraged netizens have taken to Twitter to express their frustration and disappointment in response to the issue. Some even called for everyone to boycott the local textile brand as a symbol of protest.
Dgn ini diistiharkan sy boikot jakel.. Kite pergi kamdar je.. Dia ada speaker suara org besar tu.. "mari mari ke kamdar.. Harga murah.. Bermutu tinggi"…. 😂… pic.twitter.com/WSPyD09Usj
— Jom Travel (@jom_jalan) May 3, 2020
Boikot jakel. Need to stop this provocation and teach them a lesson.
— Kasturi (@cintajusticeku) May 3, 2020
i hope this will slowly be the end of buying kain from jakel for raya. being racists and shit and gladly welcome u dumbfucks to throw money at them again…sudah2 lah tu rakyat marhaen sekalian 🤡 banyak yang woke kan, pandai-pandai lah fikir
— anais (@anais81153414) May 3, 2020
As at time of writing, Jakel is currenty a trending topic on social media as a result of the backlash received by the company.
