The message by the Barcelona striker, who was appointed as Malaysia’s tourism ambassador in November last year, was criticised and mocked by netizens for seemingly confusing the different cultures of the country.
In the posting on Friday, the Uruguayan national player had said: “Other than celebrating and experiencing different cultures in Malaysia, I’m also learning some basic Malaysian words. Happy Chinese New Year everyone. Malaysia is a country that celebrates its diversity.”
However, the accompanying photo showed him in an Indian costume with palms folded in the traditional Indian gesture, with the background of the Batu Caves Hindu temple in Selangor.
A Twitter user with the handle @alwinhimself asked when the shot was taken and how much payment Suarez received.
“This was made with Malaysian taxpayers’ money. You can see the end product is terribly substandard,” the user said.
User @Sumeetlfc quipped “You ok bro or did you bite into something?” in obvious reference to Suarez’s past notoriety of biting opponents on the field.
Another user, @makcik_puaka, teased Suarez over the gaffe, telling him that he should have uploaded the image of him in a Malay male outfit and saying “Selamat Datang” instead.
Meanwhile, a video released by Tourism Malaysia depicting Suarez, making greetings in Malay, Chinese and Tamil in three different short scenes, was also panned by Twitterati for being simplistic.
The first scene was of him dressed in the Malay attire and delivering “Selamat Datang” with the background image of the Putra Mosque of Putrajaya. The second showed him saying “ni hao” (Chinese greeting) with the image of Penang’s Kek Lok Si temple. The third was the Tamil “vanakkam” scene whose still he used for the Chinese New Year greeting.
The video titled “Attire and etiquette” had additional headings “Luis Suarez” and “Malaysian ethnic outfits and greetings”.
User @HeelHilman said: “Production should have been better, the cost for Suarez to appear in the video could’ve been used to get renowned Malaysian artistes and better production.”
Another user, @jauresea, questioned which production team was used and urged Tourism Malaysia to properly promote the image of the nation.
Not everyone was critical, however. User @q23a1 seemed more conciliatory, saying: “It’s tourism promotion and it’s better to promote to Europeans with Suarez than with any locals who are not familiar with Europeans.”