Kuala Lumpur — Celebrity chef Redzuawan Ismail, popularly known as Chef Wan, says he almost came face-to-face with fallen Prime Minister Najib Razak at a Japanese restaurant in the Pavilion Mall at Bukit Bintang.
The celebrity Chef could not take it anymore when Najib made a roaring return campaigning for Barisan Nasional in by-elections, particularly at the Cameron Highlands in january.
The Singapore-born Chef Wan reportedly said he wanted to slap Najib over the latter’s remarks saying the Barisan Nasional leadership is the ‘golden age’ for Felda settlers.
Felda is the Federal Land Development Authority is a Malaysian government agency founded to handle the resettlement of rural poor into newly developed areas and to organise smallholder farms growing cash crops. Felda settlements are known as pro-Umno bastions. The BN won the Cameron by-elections this year, defeating the Pakatan Harapan by a big margin.
Najib and Chef Wan’s fight grew on social media over the chef’s remarks after receiving the Felda Icon award bestowed on him by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The chef called on young Malays to work hard, but the award and the statements from Chef Wan prompted the gullible Najib to ask whether Felda really need an icon?
It sparked off several sarcastic Tweets by Najib but Chef Wan did not wait to attack the ex-PM back with, “You are bound to hear all this unhappy souls bitching behind as in the case of ‘Sour Grapes’. You can never please everyone.”
He says the award would only motivate him to help others.
The Chef apologised to Najib in January after he threatened to slap Najib, but will not budge on his remarks for the latter to shut up.
Two days ago, they almost bumped into each other at a Japanese restaurant in Pavilion.
Chet Wan posted on Instagram that a waiter told him Najib is dining behind him.
“As soon as I sat down, the waiter told me that ‘CW (Chef Wan), Najib is dining behind you la’.
I thought it was a joke, and when I looked inside the room, yes there he was – dining with another guy! Ada aku kesah? (Do you think I care?)” he said on his Instagram account on Friday (July 12), uploading a video of the interaction.
Najib had criticised Chef Wan for allegedly calling Felda settlers “lazy” to which he replied saying the ex-PM intentionally twisted his statement to make him look bad to the public.
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