KUALA LUMPUR: Popular actor and comedian Datuk Afdlin Shauki came under fire recently for a posting which allegedly insulted the LGBT community.
The Facebook post captioned “let the photo speak” carried a photo with the heading “Say No To LGBT” and showed a diagram with bolts and nuts.
The first combination of a bolt and nut gets a “tick” and the subsequent combinations of two nuts and two bolts received an “x”.
Afdlin has apologised for the posting and regretted that the team who managed his official Facebook page had uploaded the offensive photo.
He has accepted responsibility for the “joke in bad taste”.
“I sincerely apologise to all for the post, including my close friends and fans. All of us have choices in life, and I respect such choices. I don’t believe in condemning any community and it’s not something we should joke about,” he said in a news report yesterday.
The star of Baik Punya Cilok was notified of the post by friends on social media and directed his team to take it down immediately.
The controversial photo came in the wake of the removal of two LGBT activists’ portraits from an exhibition at the George Town Festival 2018 in George Town, Penang on Wednesday.
The portraits, part of an exhibition called Strokes And Stripes by photographer Mooreyameen Mohamad, were of Nisha Ayub and Pang Khee Teik.
It featured Malaysian public figures holding the Malaysian flag, in conjunction with the nation celebrating its independence day this month.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mujahid Yusof Rawa confirmed that he had ordered for the two portraits to be taken down.
He said that the portraits appeared to promote the LGBT lifestyle which was against the policy of the Pakatan Harapan government.
Social activists criticised the minister’s decision, and women’s rights group Women’s Aid Organisation called it “extremely sexist”.