SHAH ALAM: Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz looked pleasantly surprised at how life-like the statues displayed at I-City’s new wax museum here appear.

He was there today along with Seputeh MP Teresa Kok to open the Red Carpet 2 Wax Museum.

“Come and take a picture with me, Teresa,” he called out to Kok while standing behind a sitting statue of the late Mother Teresa, while remarking on how the MP and the nun shared the same name.

Kok could be seen pushing her way through the crowd to stand next to Nazri.

Mother Teresa wasn’t the only statue on display at the wax museum. There were also human rights icons such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, political personalities such as (US president) Donald Trump and (Russian president) Vladimir Putin, and even Hollywood stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger. They even have a special section for Harry Potter.

Standing next to Mahatma Gandhi’s statue, which was a few centimetres taller than Nazri, he commented at how tall the Indian independence fighter was.

“I didn’t know he was so tall,” said Nazri who himself is above average height.

“This man gave his life for his country,” he added.

Amid the chatter from the crowd and the camera flashes, Nazri could also be heard saying, “these statues look so real.”

In his opening speech, Nazri said he was proud of all that I-City had managed to achieve and was confident the wax museum would help the government meet its goal of 31 million tourists this year.

“It’s very important that both the public and private sectors work together towards achieving this goal and I thank I-City for understanding that.”