Just about everyone is following the World Cup, it seems. After the German soccer team's stunning 7-1 victory over Brazil on Tuesday, a Member of Parliament for Malaysia's ruling party, Bung Moktar Radin, sent out this tweet congratulating the Germans:
He was no doubt surprised when his tweet generated a lot of complaints, including one from Germany's ambassador to Malaysia, who responded somewhat ungraciously to these warm congratulations by
saying that the German people "strongly reject the unacceptable allusion to the fascist regime of Adolf Hitler.”
Bung Moktar Radin seems to have realized that he had committed some sort of faux pas, so he apologized. But his apology suggests that he still doesn't quite get it.
“When Germany whacked Brazil, I unintentionally said something that hurt [the] feeling of ppl in Germany. My sincerest apology.”
Is it possible that he might also have hurt anyone else's feelings? People are so touchy nowadays.
—Jeff Weintraub
