PETALING JAYA: A woman has drawn flak for taking to Twitter to threaten a nationwide boycott of Swedish brand Ikea for selling an LGBT-linked item that is not even available in Malaysia.
Some have reminded her that she was not in a position to speak for all Malaysians, while others have accused her of “spouting nonsense”.
The woman had cautioned Ikea there would be a boycott of the home furnishing and knockdown furniture company’s products unless it took down a poster promoting its Pride Month rainbow bags.
“Otherwise, the company will face the wrath of Malaysians,” she said in her tweet, which also featured a picture of the promotional material. However, she did not say how she was going to garner enough support to initiate a boycott.
To mark Pride Month, a celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Ikea is selling the rainbow bags in its stores in the US, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“Does Ikea want to see the ‘power’ of boycotting by Malaysians? Take down the poster or we will buy nothing from you,” she said in her tweet with the handle @azhari_ulya. The first of the backlash to her tweet came on Sunday.
A Twitter user @amndzmi said Ulya should do her research first before “spouting nonsense” as the Pride Month campaign is done elsewhere and not in Malaysia.
“If Ikea Malaysia does support this, we would have seen this communication in stores already,” she tweeted.
Many others criticised her for “creating a ruckus” which, they said, put the country to shame.
@MNH urged Ulya to stop assuming she represents every Malaysian. “You do not represent everyone in the country,” she said.
A check by theSun showed a number of Twitter users had posted lewd video clips and GIFs of the same gender kissing and hugging in the comments section.
