Sup, Coconauts?! How’s your Wednesday? Did you go outside to buy a croissant, only to have you, your shoes, the precious pastry, and the paper bag it came in get utterly soaked in a torrential downpour, making the whole trip just another soggy afternoon misadventure, kinda like we did?
All these first-world problems left us thirsty for some news cycle absurdity — a powerful thirst quickly quenched by this saga of our Youth and Sports Minister, a woman who would like to be called Cleopatra, and the subsequent fallout of their highly publicized meeting last week.
Our tale begins last week, when Ms. Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharuddin, aka “Cleopatra,” graced our news feeds with a social media-chronicled meeting with none other than Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq.
The net went wild, y’all! She’s so pretty! He’s so handsome! What a great day at work, lol!!
Well, just like the sun in the myth of brash young Icarus, the harsh glare of social media attention singed the proverbial wax and feathers of Cleopatra’s wings, and before you could say “Quick! Upload these photos of my kids to my fledgling Instagram account!”, unfounded and totally irrelevant rumors that she may be transgender began to circulate in the darkest corners of the web. (And by that we mean Twitter, duh.)
Stay classy, Twitter!
Now, the young minister certainly seemed to take heed of the fodder, telling English-language daily The Star that she was neither transgender [Ed. Note: Bro Saddiq, you don’t need to answer this], nor was she his comely new assistant, as some also speculated.
No, reader – he clarified that she was part of a group that were “from a gaming company, and came to discuss a merger, and that’s that.”
Dalam Dunia Politik,Gosip & Fitnah, berpisah tiada.
Sampai isu anak muda yang penting ditenggelamkan kerana gosip.
Sekejap dengar dia PA saya (Padahal tiada).
Sekejap dengar dia “Pondan” (Padahal seorang ibu).
Dapat kontrak?Fitnah!
Can we please focus on REAL RAKYAT ISSUES? pic.twitter.com/46mcHm1DuI
— Syed Saddiq (@SyedSaddiq) October 22, 2019
“Gossip and slander have no separation in the political world,” he added in a tweet of his own. “Can we please focus on real rakyat [people’s] issues?”
Within hours of the story hitting the headlines, Cleopatra’s Instagram account was flooded with some come-hither selfies, a declaration that she was a single mum, photos of her with two children, and a pic of herself in labor for good measure.
As it turns out, a little political intrigue, a ridiculous Gaga-circa-2009-esque rumor, and some very powerful blue contact lenses are quite the heady recipe for social media traction, and with just a few dozen photos, the number of Cleopatra’s Instagram followers skyrocketed to over 171,000.
Cue: a photo opportunity of Cleo (can we call you Cleo?) buying some crisps from Uncle T, because – come on y’all! – she’s got a heart too!
It was a social media blitz worthy of applause from the likes of Kris Jenner herself — but the media wasn’t quite done.
According to Malay Mail, who are impressively working overtime on this story (hats off to you), Cleo was at the meeting to pitch a youth initiative to the minister. (In the exclusive interview with the daily, Cleo added that it was SHE leading the pitch, and not those five other schmoes in the room, got it?!)
According to the parent company of Orange E-sports (see: the five other schmoes), they were there to pitch “a holistic youth driven initiative that included e-sports amongst other core youth development pillars.”
If you’re hoping for something that might explain just what the f**k that could possibly mean, we’re sorry to inform you that you’re out of luck. Instead, let us introduce you to a business profile that could confuse Mossack and Fonseca.
In their brief interview with Ms. Cleo, Malay Mail politely refers to her company, Cleo International Sdn Bhd, as a “little-known firm.”
Little-known is one way to put it. According to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), it had only been in existence one week before securing its photo-worthy meeting with Bro Saddiq.
More digging by the daily (honestly, we’re loving it), revealed that Cleo International had two directors: one Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharuddin, 25, aka Cleopatra; and a Mohamad Shahid A. Samad, 42. Records also showed that the two had the same residential address. (Cleo has since clarified that she is now the sole director at the company, and the listing of Mohamad Shahid A. Samad at her home address had been a clerical error.)
Cleo International’s previous incarnation was another company named Mideast Peak Sdn Bhd, set up in December of 2016 and billed as a transport and logistics services provider.
Now, just how Ms. Cleo — a 25-year-old whose experience in the E-sports arena remains unexplained — managed to secure a meeting with one of Malaysia’s most high-profile Cabinet ministers now seems to be the question on everyone’s mind.
The fledgling businesswoman has just joined Saddiq’s own Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, but the young minister insists that “integrity is key,” and that no contracts or grants were agreed upon during their meeting.
Meanwhile, over on Cleo’s Instagram page, she’s using her new-found fame for a good cause: hosting an impromptu Fenty make-up giveaway!
“Beauty isn’t everything,” she wrote. “Maybe that’s true. But it also helps to boost self-confidence and gives you strength to take on the world.”
If that’s the case, save one of them powders for yourself, girl, because we don’t think this is the last we’ll be hearing of Ms. Cleo.
Stay tuned for updates at Coconuts KL.
