The management company of Malaysian Cantonese pop singer Wee Meng Chee has demanded he sign a declaration stating that he “will not make any comments or say anything about the Malaysian Government or Chinese Government” during his upcoming visit to Hong Kong.
Wee posted the signed declaration on his Facebook page on Saturday, ahead of his Hong Kong concert on Tuesday. He said: “HAHA! THX DEMOCRACY! It is only a concert in Hong Kong, was it necessary… [?]”
He added that “The Hong Kong side asked me to sign it,” prompting netizens to believe that the Hong Kong and Malaysian governments were responsible for the gagging order. However, Henry Lau, the concert organiser and a manager for the Hong Kong branch of Wee’s Singaporean management company, EQ Music & Media (HK), confirmed to HKFP that it was the company who asked him to sign it.
Lau said that he was “involved in a court case in Malaysia” that the company was “worried about the application for his working visa”, thus he wanted Wee to sign in order to avoid any involvement in politics.
Lau also proactively submitted a copy of the declaration to the Hong Kong Immigration Department. A spokesperson for the Hong Kong government told HKFP that “In approving the application for a working visa, the Immigration Department would not ask applicants for this kind of declaration.”
Wee also confirmed to Apple Daily that his concert organiser advised him to sign the declaration to make their new sponsorship partners feel calm. “I don’t know what were they worried about,” he said. “The music and movies I do in Malaysia are all promoting peace and love.” His work was not political, he said.
He added that he did not have any plans to promote his music in China.
Wee was sentenced to three months of community service in December 2014 for insulting staff of Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the largest electrical utility company in Malaysia, in 2009. The Malaysian prosecution has applied for an appeal to increase the sentence.
Wee is a popular singer on YouTube. He rose to fame in Hong Kong for his Cantonese pop song “Learn Cantonese” with Hong Kong adult programme host Vienna Lin.
He is now based in Malaysia and Taiwan.
