KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — A video clip of Public Bank’s recent 45th anniversary celebrations featuring a cabaret-style welcome of chairman Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow waving stiffly from the back of a pickup truck has been mocked by Malaysians with comparisons made to parades held in honour of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.
Malaysians had set social media sites abuzz yesterday by reposting and commenting on the eight-minute.
The clip showed video showed a huge production of dancers and singers ushering in Teh who stood in the back of a white pickup truck with police outriders escorting him along a red carpet into a packed hall.
Dinner quests waved flags while singing a song with cheesy lyrics revering Teh while “cheering loudly for Tan Sri Teh, Man of honour, a living legend. Let’s rise up now and sing out loud, He’s our champion, make us feel proud. He gives us mission, gives us fire, Gives us vision, takes us higher.”
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin made a particularly cruel comment about the Public Bank boss by posting on micro-blogging site Twitter about “Malaysia’s latest religious cult: Public Bank. Kim Jong Il would be jealous” along with a link to the YouTube clip.
However, the video, along with several others from the event were deleted today by the uploader with the username desco2009.
The clip gave Malaysians a glimpse of the reverence in which Teh is held by staff of one of Malaysia’s most successful banks.
The 81-year-old banker founded Public Bank in 1966 after leaving his position as general manager of Malayan Banking.
His net worth is estimated by Forbes to be around RM13 billion, making him one of Malaysia’s top three richest men.
Teh has also collected a host of banking and business awards from being Asia’s best banker in 1991 to Asia’s best chief executive this year.
A call to Public Bank, currently the biggest domestic bank in Malaysia by shareholders’ funds, revealed that Desco was the name of the company that has produced video clips for Public Bank for over 15 years.
This was also confirmed by video production studio Visualline, whose Facebook page contains an album of pictures from the anniversary dinner.
However, Visualline said it had only rented equipment to an Alfred from videographers Desco.
Repeated calls to Desco were not answered but a Public Bank corporate communications officer said that it was unaware that any clip from its anniversary had been uploaded and had not issued any orders to take down recordings from the event.
Although desco2009’s channel on YouTube remained empty this evening, a blog called located at khairulryezal.blogspot.com had managed to grab the video and uploaded in a post titled “Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow Of Public Bank — A New Ayah Pin.”
In the video, Teh waves to the crowd who sing “Cheering loudly for Tan Sri Teh, man of honour, a living legend. He’s our champion, make us feel proud. He gives us mission, gives us fire. Gives us vision, takes us higher. We’re getting stronger. We’re living in fame. We’re here together. Welcoming you dear Tan Sri Teh.”
Midway through the clip, a young woman points out to Teh that an alien spaceship bearing a huge anniversary cake is being lowered to the centre of the stage.
Finally, Teh is chauffeured to the cake and as he steps of the truck, the costumed dancers and singer go on their knees with both hands stretched out facing Teh, ushering him towards the cake.
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