Artists having a good ride on Rosmah and Singapore's Ho Ching
Singapore artists were numb about Malaysia’s ex-FLOM Rosmah, but now they are not holding their horses after the fall of the Barisan Nasional regime.
The harassment against artists in Malaysia for their funny portrayals of former PM Najib Razak is legendary. But little known is of the frustration of Singaporean artists who could not express themselves on the ex-Malaysian strong man.
Now they are having a good ride on Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the disgraced former PM and Ho Ching, the wife of the Singaporean leader Lee Hsien Loong.
Singaporean satirists in the Lion City are imagining them as the best of friends.
Last Sunday popular local actors Ivan Heng and Siti Khalijah Zainal tickled Singaporeans with a video clip that went viral.
They portrayed the two political spouses, portraying Rosmah’s fall from grace in the May 9 general elections.
Before the poll, Singaporean comedians were forced to issue official apologies for making fun of Najib.
Malaysian cartoonists were arrested for satirising the former leader and his wife.
There was no fear of such reprisals in the skit by Heng and Khalijah. They were performing at a fundraising dinner for the local theatre company Wild Rice.
Rosmah was the butt of jokes with Khalijah. The video shows the artist mocking everything from the 66-year-old’s purported penchant for Botox to her love of Hermes Birkin bags.
“Why are you carrying so many handbags? Didn’t they confiscate everything?” Heng, playing Ho, asks Khalijah (playing Rosmah), as he meets her.
The onstage Rosmah replies: “No, not these five … if you carry five Birkin bags at the same time no one would ever think they are real.”
The crowd in stitches, Khalijah adds: “You would agree with me that they [Birkin bags] are such a great investment because they appreciate in value, unlike your HDB [public housing apartments].
Ho Ching, the chief executive of the Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings, was not spared the ribbing.
Heng was dressed in an attire that matched a blue blouse and pink silk pants. Ho Ching’s wore them when she accompanied Lee who called on Mahathir soon after the elections.
She was criticised by some fashion-conscious local netizens for wearing “pyjamas” to a high-level meeting.
In the skit, Khalijah, wearing a red scarf and blue baju kurung [Malay attire] – colours of the toppled United Malays National Organisation – queries Heng about his attire.
Khalijah asks: “By the way Ching, you [are] wearing this again, ah?”
The on-screen Ho replies: “It’s quite comfortable. I wear it in the office every day, go to work, and then at night, I can attend social functions and dinners like this. After this, I go home and wear it as my pyjamas … blue is my favourite colour and pink is my husband’s favourite colour.”