Local singer Baby Shima came under massive fire this week over a post she shared on her TikTok account.
For context, Shima (full name Norashima Ramli) previously uploaded a video of her imitating Zhariff Afandi, a well-known differently-abled activist who was born with no arms and uses his limbs to perform daily tasks in an interview for a TV program.
The post had since went viral on Twitter, where the 29-year-old ended up receiving tons of backlash from local netizens. Soon after that, Shima then came forth to apologise for her insensitive action. According to her, she didn’t realise that the man she was parodying is actually a disabled person.
“I saw the video on TikTok and I swear to God, I had no idea that the individual is disabled. I only focused on his foot and straight away came up with the post. I didn’t notice his condition at all because I paid too much attention to his legs. 30 minutes after I uploaded the clip, I was bashed for being insensitive,” she clarified to Harian Metro.
She continued, “Only then I knew that he’s actually disabled and immediately deleted the post afterwards. If I really had the intention to insult, I’d better just leave the video like that. I would really like to apologise to the individual, and to those who were offended by it. I swear, I have no intention of insulting them. Why would I want to do things that’ll tarnish my name?”
At the same time, the former “Big Stage” contestant also revealed that she felt shocked and upset when the video was brought up 4 days after it was removed. She said, “What’s his intention to share the video without even knowing the truth? The culprit who spread the post has defamed and damaged my name and image. So, I’ve discussed with my lawyers to pursue legal action against those who started the rumours.”
Subsequently, Zhariff also confirmed that Baby Shima had contacted him to apologise over the controversial TikTok post. “Just wanted to say, this Baby Shima girl. She already called (me), she apologised, she meant no harm. Now moving on folks, moving on,” the owner of the company The Zhariff Initiative Sdn. Bhd. said in a video posted on his IG Story.
We really hope Shima will learn her lesson from the recent controversy.
Source: Harian Metro.
