INTERVIEW Actress Lim Ching Miau, who is being investigated for her role in Seputeh MP Teresa Kok’s controversial Chinese New Year video, laid low for six days and was forced to eat only instant noodles when she came to know the police were looking for her.

“I was hiding in the new house I had just moved into, while the police traced me to an address in Puchong as stated in my identity card, and they also went to a house where I had previously stayed,” she said.

Lim starred as ‘Mrs Jit’, a feng shui expert in the 11-minute ‘Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014' video , which made reference to diamond rings, branded handbags and real estate in New York, which viewers may associate with Rosmah Mansor’s penchant for luxury goods and her son, Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz’s 2012 purchase of an RM100 million apartment in New York.

Kok is being investigated under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code for making “statements conducive to public mischief”, and  Section 233 (1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act, for “improper use of network facilities or network service”.

In an exclusive interview last Tuesday evening, right after she recorded her police statement, Lim said she began to feel worried when friends and relatives warned and advised her to go into hiding, as police will soon begin to arrest those involved.

“On the day I went back my old house to collect my letters, a neighbour said a few policemen, one in uniform while others in plainclothes, showed up at midnight and were looking for me,” she said.

“I was home alone, I wondered if anything happened to me, no one would come and help. Though I’m not a beauty, but I’m still a bachelor girl, and I have whatever other females have,” she told Malaysiakini and KiniTV .

In Lim’s mind, she thought that if the police were able to trace her to her old address, then they should able to get her cellphone contact number, and she began to wonder if they were bogus cops.

So when the police called and asked her to record a statement at a “genuine” police station, she felt much relieved.

The 32-year-old actress defended “her colleagues” who co-starred in the video, saying, “If imitating is a crime, then what do we want an actor for?”

However, she noted that viewers of the video clip  would associate her role as ‘Mrs Jit’ with Rosmah, the wife of the prime minister.

“More importantly, just don’t take it so personally,” she said, while acknowledging that viewers may come to associate the other two roles with MCA leaders Dr Ng Yen Yen and Wee Ka Siong.

‘Not a spoof video, but a comedy video’

She denied that it was a spoof video, but rather it was a comedy video that touched on fake feng shui.

 

Lim became well-known for her fat girl role in a local Chinese movie, ‘Ice Kacang Puppy Love’, back in 2010, and she was known for her involvement in social activities and had openly campaigned for a Pakatan candidate in the last general election.

She said Malaysian artistes should enjoy freedom of expression as they are not puppets and can make up their own minds, and such rights should be respected.

This is a democratic country and we should live with the spirit of democracy, Lim said.

She had fought for and supported the opposition, she said, because she wanted to see a ‘two-party system’ established in the country.

The Penangite said she had grown up in a family where some of the members had joined Gerakan, and had listened to her relatives criticising the opposition parties, especially DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.

However, when she noticed the people were still struggling to make a living and were unable to cope with the recent price hikes, something boiled up inside her and she decided to join civil society groups as well as fight to democratise the nation.

“My mother was especially worried with my involvement (in campaigning for Pakatan and social society groups), fearing that May 13 may recur, but I told her that when people are starving with empty stomachs and turn into hungry ghosts, they’re afraid of nothing,” she said.

Lim described her experience backpacking to other countries, where she not only enjoyed the foreign culture and scenery, but also took the initiative to read about the countries’ economic and political situations.

She compared these situations with Malaysia's and concluded that the people in countries where the systems have gone wrong and corruption was rampant suffered.

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