Celebrities are Malaysian citizens too, and have the right to comment on issues within the country that affects them, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"Do citizens not have the right to comment on issues that they face?
"The rising prices and things like that are felt by them and so they comment on it.
"What right do Umno members have in denying their (celebrities) rights?" Mahathir questioned, in a one-and-a-half-minute video clip posted on his Facebook page today.
Umno delegates attending the party's AGM this week had widely condemned popular jazz singer Sheila Majid's tweet on Tuesday about the runaway inflation, rising unemployment and the depreciation of the ringgit.
Umno information chief Annuar Musa had claimed that economics was not Sheila's forte and she had purportedly got her facts wrong, while other reactions ranged from telling her to "go to hell" to cautioning her outspokenness as a celebrity.
Mahathir said that Umno members are reacting this way because they have been given 'dedak' (gratification).
"Because of this 'dedak', they are willing to sell the country, their dignity and their own people.
"This is what has become of Umno members and their leaders now.
"(They have been) become puppets... who will say whatever (Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak says at the press of a button," he said.
Other celebrities have since spoken up in defence of their colleagues for commenting on current affairs.- Mkini
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