KUALA LUMPUR: MCA President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong has urged netizens not to respond to recent statements made by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Dr Mahathir recently claimed signboards in the city were dominated by Chinese characters, accompanied by English translations, with no trace of the national language.
Wee explained that engaging with Dr Mahathir's remarks would only serve his agenda of gaining support from his community.
"Why fall into such a trap? He intends to provoke you into reacting, which would naturally help him garner support from his base," Wee said.
In a video posted on his Chinese Facebook page, Wee responded to Dr Mahathir's recent statement claiming that signboards in Kuala Lumpur malls were predominantly written in Chinese with English translations.
Speaking in Mandarin, Wee expressed doubt about Dr Mahathir's claim, saying that he had travelled extensively across Kuala Lumpur but had never encountered a shopping mall where signboards were exclusively in Chinese.
"Is there really such a place? I've lived in Kuala Lumpur for so long, and even now, I can't recall seeing anything like that," he said.
Dr Mahathir called for the importance of Bahasa Malaysia, as the national language, to take precedence after noticing most of the shops' signboards were written in Chinese with English translations while strolling at a mall.