PETALING JAYA: Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching has apologised for putting up a picture on Facebook with the curse word "lahabau" (useless) without understanding its meaning.

       On Monday (Nov 8), Teo had uploaded a picture accompanied by the words "Lahabau Melaka, Jom Undi" in a bid to show her support for the Melaka state elections and encourage voters to vote.

       However, according to Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, "lahabau" means "useless" or "unreliable".

       Teo said due to the strict ban on campaigning, almost all campaigns for the Melaka elections had to be done via social media and that many Pakatan Harapan staffers, particularly from DAP, had lacked sleep in preparing campaign materials.

       "However, human beings can't escape from making mistakes, including myself.

       "Due to this, there has been an embarrassing language mistake made on social media. I only wanted to campaign through the free photo frame on Facebook without understanding what the word meant.

       "With this, I humbly apologise for my mistake in uploading the campaign material using the wrong wording and language," she said in a Facebook post on Monday (Nov 8).

       She also promised to be more careful when uploading social media campaign materials for the Melaka state elections.

       "I apologise to all, especially to the people and voters of Melaka," she said.

       The Melaka election is set for early voting on Nov 16 while polling day is on Nov 20.