SELANGOR – “All residents must unite as one to avoid renting wooden houses to foreign workers!” wrote Pandamaran state assemblyman Tony Leong Tuck Chee in a Facebook post after a fire occurred at his constituency yesterday (March 12).
It is believed that the fire was caused by a foreign worker who cooked without proper safety measures in place.
Leong said he received a text from the Klang City Councillor after his vaccination appointment and immediately rushed to the scene to offer assistance.
“When the fire department arrived at the scene, two wooden houses located next door and one behind were razed to the ground due to low water pressure.”
According to his post, the accident has caused 27 residents to lose their homes.
“Therefore, all residents [of Pandamaran] must unite as one to avoid renting wooden houses to foreign workers!”
Leong claimed that doing so will help avert the occurrence of such “unpleasant incidents”.
His post was lambasted on social media for its racist and insensitive undertones, where many accused Leong of stoking anti-immigrant sentiment towards foreign workers who long have endured mistreatment by their Malaysian employees and blamed for contributing to the skyrocketing Covid-19 numbers.
Netizen Kenn Yeap advised Leong to walk in the foreign workers’ shoes and consider retracting his statement. Another, Eric Lau, sarcastically remarked that Pandaraman should consider having its very own fire department.
Another netizen named Yew Lee reminded Leong of his role as a representative of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which often described itself as a political party that advocates unity in diversity.
The post has since received more than 300 reactions and 270 shares at the time of writing.
You can view the full post here:
Sources: (Fb/Tony Leong Tuck Chee – 梁德志)
Editor: Raymond Chen
Proofreader: Sarah Yeoh
