During the opening of the 2026 Parliament session earlier today, Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) Sultan Ibrahim stressed that any new education system must align with the national education policy, which is based on Bahasa Malaysia (BM).
As we reported earlier, His Majesty also pointed out that Malaysians who refuse to accept BM as the national language within the education system should consider leaving Malaysia.
Yang di-pertuan agong sultan ibrahim
Firdaus Wong criticises local Chinese media for misrepresenting His Majesty’s statement
In response, a local Chinese media outlet reported that His Majesty had supposedly said, “If you don’t know Malay, don’t live in Malaysia,” which drew criticism from Malaysian Muslim preacher Firdaus Wong.
In a Facebook post, Firdaus called out the media for showing disrespect to the King, pointing out that their report misrepresented His Majesty’s original statement.
“What the Yang di-Pertuan Agong actually said was: ‘If someone cannot accept the Malay language, it is better not to live in Malaysia.’ But what they wrote was: ‘If you don’t know Malay, don’t live in Malaysia.’ There is a big difference in meaning between ‘don’t know’ and ‘don’t accept,'” he wrote.
Firdaus wong
Firdaus also criticised the media’s choice of words, calling it “misleading” and questioning what message they were trying to send to their readers.
“There’s no acceptable excuse, as the difference in meaning is very clear, even if their journalist is a UEC graduate who doesn’t understand Bahasa Malaysia and made a mistranslation.”
“if you don’t know malay, don’t live in malaysia”
“If you’re not at fault, why did you change the thumbnail?”
Firdaus stressed that if no firm action is taken against the media, he fears it could send a signal that such provocations are acceptable and may continue.
“What kind of provocation is this? Why use a misleading headline? What is the media trying to convey to its readers, the majority of whom are Chinese? Is it to incite people to criticise and hate the YDPA? The media even closed its comment section,” he said.
In another post, Firdaus also pointed out that the media outlet had since changed its thumbnail image, which he claimed only happened after he called them out.
“The media changed their thumbnail after I exposed their disrespect and provocation. Would they have changed it if I hadn’t highlighted their misleading choice of words?
“I will be filing a police report against them this afternoon at the Damansara Utama Police Station. Everyone can do the same at their nearest police station. Let’s teach them a lesson.”
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