Last year’s Gegar Vaganza 4 winner Aishah is crying foul, alleing she was defrauded over the prizes that came with her victory on the come-back singing competition program.
The jewelry was sponsored by Coconuts KL’s favorite unhinged business mogul, Datuk Seri Hasmiza Othman, better known as Dato’ Vida, aka DSV to us here around the office.
Turns out that RM80,000 (US$20,000) gem stone pendant and necklace she provided to the winner ain’t more than a cluster of artificial sapphires, and cubic zirconia held together by a faux chain of broken dreams.
The bejazzled necklace was part of an array of prizes — including a (real) bungalow unit, RM100,000 (US$25,000) in cash and a trip to Eastern Europe.
Speaking to Malay Mail, Aishah alleges that she has repeatedly asked for Vida to be held accountable for providing counterfeit sparklers to the ’90s singing sensation, who fell on obscure times, before re-entering into the public spotlight via Gegar.
“Vida has made it clear that she refuses to apologize, so the last option will have to be legal action,” she told the daily.
“I’m not trying to start a fight, but sometimes you have to stand up for what is right.”
Yes. Stand up for the injustices suffered by society’s most vulnerable, but you know – also stand up against fake sparkler prizes from that comeback show that made you relevant again.
With true equanimity, DSV has responded to the claims by insisting that the gems are real; however, if Aishah is unsatisfied with the prize, she is willing to exchange the necklace for currency. Namely, her own new cryptocurrency, the Lavida Coin.
Yesterday, Malaysia’s central regulator Bank Negara added the Lavida Coin to their consumer alert list.
Aishah took to social media this week with a video on her Instagram page, showing the necklace to be inauthentic.
Claiming that she initially took the gems in to a jeweler last year to be “reset” (as old a euphemism for “valued” as humans have been scorned, if we’ve ever heard one), she discovered that the stones themselves were labeled as “cubic zirconia.”
After waiting a year and attempting to resolve the issue amicably, she has now used social media to out the singing diva slash skin-whitening entrepreneur.
“I’m hoping with a revelation like this, there will be more stringent guidelines to avoid this from repeating,” she said.
“I don’t want a younger and inexperienced person in the industry to go through what I did.”
Way to #MeToo this, Aishah.
We hope you find #justice, but using social media against DSV is the literal equivalent of trying to outswim a dolphin in water: They’re faster, smarter, and this is their turf.
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