Malaysians can't speak English

American hip hop artiste Nelly came under fire after he tweeted that most Malaysians can't speak English.

"Thank you, Malaysia. All 30,000 of you! Amazing when you do a show and 50% of the crowd can't even speak English but they can sing every word! Winning!" the singer, born Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday.

His tweet was met with a flurry of angry replies, to which he responded: "Wow, no wonder. Was just told that Malaysia's second language is English! My apologies, no disrespect to a beautiful country! Incredible show!"

While some of his followers have tweeted that English is a benchmark of intelligence and knowledge, the 36-year-old from St. Louis, Missouri, strongly believes otherwise.

"I know plenty of folks in my country that can speak English all day but can't spell it and are as dumb as a BOX OF ROCKS! HOW is that disrespect?

"Language is not a meter of intelligence, it's only a tool of communication! Take pride in your heritage and not ANOTHER COUNTRY'S LANGUAGE!" he wrote.

Nelly performed here at the Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday at Astro's Suara Kami Concert and Carnival.

He was joined by Korean pop band, Rania (Regeneration Networked Idol of Asia), Hong Kong singer-songwriter Hins Cheung and Indian singers Naresh Iyer and Chinmayi.

The Suara Kami concert, which celebrates the nation's youth, also featured popular local acts like Yuna, Hujan, Faizal Tahir, Pop Shuvit, Azlan Typewriter, Altimet and DJ Fuzz.

- Asiaone