KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Rina Harun was hard at work cleaning “difficult to remove bird and lizard faeces”, explained the Social Welfare Department following a viral video showing the minister using a waterjet on what seems to be a clean cement floor.
Earlier today, the Bersatu Srikandi chief came under heavy flak after Twitter user with the handle @dylawok posted a video showing her efforts at a temporary flood relief centre (PPS) in SK Salak, Salak Tinggi.
Surrounded by at least four photographers and videographers recording her every move, the women, family and community development minister was seen blasting a jet of water onto a relatively clean drain and cement floor immediately outside a school building.
Coming to her defence, the department, which is an agency under the purview of her own ministry, said in a statement that it was “called” to deny that Rina was only “posing” when she was cleaning the floor, as she was burned by Twitterverse today.
“The Social Welfare Department, as the party managing this operation, had requested Datuk Seri Rina to clean bird and lizard faecal stains that the school said were hard to remove.
“Seeing that there was a waterjet at the location, Datuk Seri Rina did not reject our request and gladly took the task.
“JKM (Social Welfare Department) firmly states that Datuk Seri Rina wasn’t only involved in cleaning the cement, she had also helped with other cleaning work and coordinated logistics matters at the school,” said the statement.
The department also said that it was not fair for netizens to mock the Titiwangsa MP’s efforts in the cleaning operation.
The 13-second video had garnered over 17,400 retweets, 11,400 likes at the time of writing and was flooded with criticism from netizens.
Among them was Twitter user @ArmyAhjumma87 who took a jab at the minister alleging that Rina was just putting up a show.
“She is not ‘cleaning the PPS’ but she is just acting to clean because she doesn’t want to go to affected areas.
“Luckily she went to a PPS. What if she did this in her own backyard?”
Another Twitter user @wawinnnnnnnpointed pointed out that there’s a neighbourhood near the PPS that needs to be cleaned after being deeply affected by the floods.
“The walk to the neighbourhood would take less than a minute. That’s so stupid of her to ‘play’ water jet at the PPS.”
In a Facebook post, Rina explained that she participated in a clean-up operation to reorganise the school, which was previously transformed as a PPS.
“Praise be to God, all the families have returned to their homes after floodwaters receded.
“I am proud of the volunteers and all the agencies under the ministry who have worked hard to ensure the school can resume normally when session resumes,” she said. – The Vibes, December 26, 2021
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