Local website Mothership.sg had a bit of a laugh on Saturday, poking fun at a recruitment ad they believed was put up by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) that — gasp! — featured Singaporean actor Elvin Ng.
It’s apparently funny because Ng was in a Singapore Police Force uniform — a result of his role in Mediacorp Channel 8 police drama C.L.I.F. 3. Laughs and mocking comments ensued, with the article leading many to assume that PDRM made a pretty salient blunder.
But right now, it seems that the laughs are on Mothership, who’ve been accused of being “irresponsible” for publishing their piece without verifying the facts with PDRM. In a statement to Free Malaysia Today, PDRM corporate communications head Asmawati Ahmad confirmed that the picture circulating on social media was, in fact, a hoax.
“Why do we need actors, when we have a strong 130,000 personnel in the police force,” she asserted, calling it absolutely nonsensical to use a Singaporean actor in their ads.
“That is very uncalled for. They should have called us and verified the details before writing such an article.”
Mothership responded in kind by not feeling the need to apologise for the alternative facts; instead they updated the story with a short sentence saying that the recruitment ad was a hoax. They did quietly add the word “Hoax” to their headline though.
