We Malaysians might bicker a lot with each other over so many things, from petty issues like football to other various controversial issues. However, there are two things that unite us: food and badminton.
Hence, during the recent Badminton Asia Team Championship (BATC) 2022, many badminton fans came over to the Setia City Convention Centre in Shah Alam to show their support to our national’s badminton team.
Aaron chia arriving at final men’s team #BATC2022 pic.twitter.com/9SJ28mkWzK
— hweng19 👧👩👩🎓👩⚖️🔜💀 (@hweng19) February 20, 2022
However, among the badminton fans that showed up at Setia City Convention Centre, there was one person in particular who had decided to spew hatred towards our beloved team captain, Aaron Chia. In the video, instead of wishing the team the best of luck like other fans, a woman can be heard saying “ugly, fat!” repeatedly in the Indonesian accent towards Aaron Chia when he passed the crowd.
This has invoked the rage of not only the Malaysian badminton fans for the body-shaming comments, but also the Indonesian fans for giving a bad rep to the country’s name. One Indonesian netizen stated, “Aunty, your mouth brings shame to the whole country.” While the majority of Indonesian Twitter netizens apologise on behalf of the person who body-shamed Aaron Chia.
After being exposed and slammed by netizens from both sides, the body-shamer came forward to explain her side through an Instastory of another Indonesian fan, @irtyafarii. She stated that she has always been a badminton fan, and those hate comments thrown towards Aaron Chia were solely intended as a joke instead of a mockery.
Despite the hatred spewed thrown towards the team captain, the Malaysian team managed to defeat the defending champion – the Indonesian team – and snagged the championship’s title this time around.
https://twitter.com/dnzy165/status/1495298386576420865?s=20&t=2Lm5WJOqVLPfYrGaGIebkw
We would like to extend our congratulations to both of the teams!
