The Ministry of Health (MoH)’s official Instagram account was recently attacked by a number of enraged Indonesian netizens.
This came as result of a slight misunderstanding regarding the Covid-19 imported cases issued by the ministry earlier.
According to Malaysiakini, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah stated that 70% of the Covid-19 imported cases were from Indonesia. The percentage refers to the number of 99 (out of 139 in total) Malaysian patients who have just arrived from the country.
However, the statement was completely misinterpreted by Indonesians who thought that 70% of all positive Covid-19 cases originated from the country, whereas it actually refers to imported cases.
Fuelled with disappointment, a number of netizens then took to the comments section with hateful remarks against the MoH. Some even blindly put the blame on Malaysians, which sparked a clash of ideas among the 2 neighbouring countries.
Instead of staying silent, a few Malaysians then came forward to defend the ministry from receiving unfair criticism. The comments section was flooded with heated debacles between the two. Others also tried to clear the air by providing explanations to the netizens who misunderstood the initial statement.
Hopefully the clarifications provided by Malaysian netizens on this matter will help to clear the air on their misunderstanding.
