SINGAPORE: On the dwell broadcast of the forty seventh Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit on Sunday (Oct 26), a commentator from Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) mistakenly recognized Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as Lee Hsien Loong, whom he succeeded in Could 2024.
Nonetheless, this was not RTM’s solely mistake throughout the ASEAN summit. The identical commentator mentioned that the Prime Minister of Thailand was Srettha Thavisin. Earlier that day, RTM mentioned in a press release that the title of the President of Indonesia is Joko Widodo.
For the document, Srettha Thavisin was dismissed from his place in August 2024, and the present Thai Prime Minister is Anutin Charnvirakul. As for Indonesia, its President is Prabowo Subianto, who had served as Defence Minister below Joko Widodo, whose second presidential time period ended final yr.
RTM has since apologised for the errors made final Sunday.
“RTM views this matter severely and applicable motion has been taken,” the broadcaster mentioned in a assertion, including that it’s going to “proceed to extend editorial management and fact-checking to make sure all data that’s conveyed is correct and has integrity.”
On Tuesday (Oct 28), Malay Mail reported that RTM Director-Common Datuk Suhaimi Sulaiman had met with officers from Singapore and Indonesia the day earlier than to supply an official rationalization and apology.
He spoke to Singapore’s Excessive Commissioner to Malaysia, Vanu Gopala Menon, in addition to to representatives from the Indonesian delegation.
The apology was accepted, with each events understanding that the misidentifications had been unintentional.
“We’ve conveyed an official apology, and so they accepted it with full understanding. It was an unintentional mistake, and we deeply remorse it. The Excessive Commissioner of Singapore additionally appreciated our sincerity and emphasised that Malaysia-Singapore relations stay shut and strongly bonded,” he mentioned.
Commenters on-line, nonetheless, had fairly a bit to say in regards to the incident.
“Getting your speedy neighbour’s names unsuitable… Nice going, Malaysia,” one wrote.
“Malaysia, these are your direct neighbours,” echoed one other.
“I learn stuff that I WROTE no less than twice earlier than submitting it to keep away from making embarrassing errors. Whoever made this error clearly didn’t learn by way of their ‘work’ even one time. I’m actually a no one. Whoever screwed this up must lose their job,” chimed in a 3rd.
Others, nonetheless, couldn’t assist however have some enjoyable.
“One is a mistake. Two is a coincidence. Three is a sample … of utilizing AI…” a Reddit consumer joked.
“Utilizing AI is one factor. However this means that they only Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V from ChatGPT with out even a second look,” replied one other.
“When your broadcast depends on the boss’s reminiscence. I imply LHL has been PM for fairly a while (by way of six Malaysian PMs, in reality). It’s like individuals saying ‘God save the Queen’ after King Charles took over,” a commenter wrote. /TISG
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