‘Shahrizat lembu’ banner creates online buzz

A design blunder on an Aidiladha banner has refreshed netizens' memory of Shahrizat’s link to the NFC fiasco.

PETALING JAYA: Photographs of a banner that depicts former minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil as “Datuk Seri Shahrizat lembu” have gone viral on twitter, sparking ridicule from netizens.

The banner, purportedly placed in Kangar, Perlis, was meant to inform the public about a Shahrizat’s Aidiladha function and her contribution of 20 cows as sacrificial offering.

Organised by Kangar Umno division, the event was supposed to be held at Simpang Empat Abi public service center.

However a design blunder in the banner placed the words “Datuk Seri Shahrizat” and “lembu” next to each other, making the sentence reading “Datuk Seri Shahrizat lembu”.

Netizens were quick to jump into the design blunder, tweeting remarks that hit out at the “brainless graphic designer” and to question the coincidence, among others.

@missosixnine tweeted that: “and this is why you shouldn’t hire a brainless graphic designer. #DesignFAIL

@paanSchweizer said: “I read and spot the Shahrizat lembu sentence straight away. Lol, I don’t think that this is a coincidence.”

Buletin Pakatan Rakyat in a Facebook posting said that the Kangar Umno division might have done the banner on purpose.

“They could have put a full stop after the word Shahrizat. Or they purposely want to frame Shahrizat?” the posting said.

However, when asked about this banner blunder by netizens, Shahrizat suspected opposition’s work behind the banner.

“Who else will use my name? This is normal lah,” she said in reply to @syedshah.

Shahrizat was implicated in a series of exposure by PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli last year, claiming that she had abused her ministerial position to help her family members to secure RM250 million soft loan from the government for the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) project.

Rafizi claimed that the cattle-rearing project turned up to be a fiasco as the cattle produced did not meet the target, and the operator company, NFC Sdn Bhd had used the loans to purchase luxury condominiums.

Under growing pressure from the government and the opposition, Shahrizat relinquished her ministerial post earlier this year when her senatorship ceased.

The opposition however has been riding on the scandal to label Shahrizat as “the cow minister”, saying that the case proves the corruption level within ruling government.