The social media pages for celebrity chef Redzuawan Ismail's restaurant is being peppered with liberal doses of negative reviews.
In an Instagram posting, Redzuawan, who is popularly known as Chef Wan, linked it to his remarks after receiving the Ikon Anak Felda award from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad last week, where he reportedly described how Felda settlers were lazy and accused them of “breeding like cats.”
“These cyber troopers are bad mouthing and slandering our restaurant. They think all Malaysians are as stupid as them to swallow that 's***'.
“They are barking like mad dogs wanting me to return the Felda Icon award,” he added in the Instagram posting.
However, Redzuawan said the negative reviews have not hurt business at this restaurant, De.Wan 1958 by Chef Wan, at The Linc KL in Jalan Tun Razak.
In an interview with the New Straits Times published today, the 61-year-old chef claimed that certain quarters had twisted his previous remarks.
“People need to read the sentences properly. I did not say 'all' Felda settlers are lazy. I said 'segelintir', which means 'some',” he said.
Redzuawan said that some of the settlers had more than one wife and numerous children, but were irresponsible and did not take care of their offspring.
“There are youngsters who are jobless loafers and drug addicts with no education. All of this causes social problems.
“Don’t twist and turn things just to get votes and political mileage,” he said.
After receiving the award, Redzuawan, in an Instagram post, urged Felda settlers to work hard to cultivate cash crops since the price of palm oil is uncertain.
“Malaysia is blessed with good soil and there is a lot of idle lands. The government should privatise this land for cash crops.
“I have travelled to Australia, Norway and Sweden for my TV shows and saw how people cultivate cash crops and raise livestock, making full use of the land and contributing to the economy.
“Back home, many of my fellow Felda settlers sell off fertiliser subsidies given to them by the government, and when they receive dividends, they marry two or three times and 'breed like cats'.
“I saw all of this when I was growing up (in a Felda settlement). Their bad attitude has been passed on to their grandchildren,” he had said, drawing flak from certain quarters.
