KUALA LUMPUR: It seems that cosmetics entrepreneur Datuk Seri Aliff Syukri’s demeaning comments on a TV show that was broadcast live recently has got the programme’s broadcasting company in hot soup.
In a news report yesterday, Astro was issued with a warning by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) with regards to promotional products that allegedly ridicule people’s skin colour and face.
This was in response to a widespread barrage of public complaints on the matter which took place during a recent concert episode of the Gegar Vaganza 5 singing competition which was aired on the Astro Ria channel.
Aliff, whose cosmetics company is a major sponsor for the show, was reported to have said that he wanted to “choose the ugly woman in this concert” during a promotional segment in that particular episode.
He then selected a female audience member and told her that her face looked like a “bomoh”.
Aliff later proceeded to smear his product, while talking about it, on the woman’s face.
In another incident, Aliff was also reported to have made a racist joke on the skin colour of local Indian singer Santesh.
As a result, the MCMC had conducted an investigation on the matter and called Astro in on Nov 7 to discuss the incident, which included formulating precautionary measures and corrective actions to be carried out.
The news report added that the apologies from the sponsor and Astro were released during an episode of the show that aired on Nov 11.
In an effort to prevent a repeat of the incident, Astro had also pre-recorded any segment involving the major sponsor of the particular show.
A statement released by the MCMC read: “The MCMC views the matter seriously and has issued a warning to Astro to ensure that incidents like this do not happen again. Astro, the Individual Content Application Service Provider (CASP-i) licence holder is subject to compliance with the Special License Terms and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Content Code.”