Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has revealed that he had apologised to the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao over the glaring translation error during the latter’s visit yesterday.

And when asked at a press conference this evening, Najib said that his Chinese counterpart has accepted his apology.

“But we are still investigating (the error). The whole idea was to show our enthusiasm for the visit of the Chinese premier.

NONE “Unfortunately, enthusiasm was one thing but the competency to translate that was another. So it was unintentional.

“We regret it very much and I have apologised to the premier,” said Najib when asked by reporters after chairing the Umno supreme council meeting at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysiakini reported that there was a glaring translation error in the Chinese text on the backdrop at a welcoming ceremony in Putrajaya when Wen and his entourage were in the country for a two-day visit.

Apparently, the words were a direct translation from a sentence in Malay: “ Istiadat Sambutan Rasmi Sempena Lawatan Rasmi TYT Wen Jiabao Ke Malaysia ” (Official welcoming ceremony in conjunction with official visit of His Excellency Wen Jiabao to Malaysia).

However the Chinese translation turned out to have serious syntax and grammatical errors.

Najib also attempted to put the matter to rest, saying that it was an unintentional and genuine mistake.

“I that is the end of the issue. Don’t make a big deal out of it. It was not intended. It was a genuine mistake.

“We will find out who is responsible but its not such a big issue because the Chinese premier understands,” said Najib.