PETALING JAYA: Malaysians have chastised the Caucasian woman who caused a stir for refusing to wear a face mask at a luxury store last month after she uploaded a video on her “freedom to choose”.
While the woman, who revealed her name only as “Kerry” in a social media post, claims she is supporting “freedom”, many berated her and told her to respect the law and not undo the work by many frontliners to bring Covid-19 cases to a manageable level.
On social media, @doktorrezz said Kerry should leave Malaysia if she didn’t want to comply with the guidelines.
@imansinclair had a similar sentiment: “This is Malaysia and not Manchester. Your country has laws. Malaysia as well. If you can’t comply with other country’s laws then the police will take action. Don’t play (the) victim.”
@lfc_eddie urged her to stop being selfish.
“Wearing a mask does not only protect you but others too. We couldn’t care less what you do to your body, it’s what you’re doing to us that we are concerned about.”
@namn78 said if she really was as patriotic as claimed, she should follow the law as a patriot would.
“Follow the SOP to avoid spreading the virus even fully vaccinated. Just wear the mask as asked.”
On Saturday, the woman, who had refused to wear a face mask at a luxury retail store, identified herself as Kerry.
In a two-minute 20-second video which was uploaded on the 117%WeThePeople handle on Twitter, Kerry claimed that she came to Malaysia from Manchester some 20 years ago.
She started with a “Selamat pagi” and said that she and her children had a home here and she loved Malaysia.
However, she said that freedom encompassed many things including medical issues.
“Our song is freedom – freedom to choose what we eat, where we go, who we go with and what we do to our bodies, medically or otherwise.“It is a choice, your choice, my choice,” she said in the Twitter post.
She added that many countries were giving up their Covid-19 mandates and asked the viewers to “form your own opinion”.
She then used the phrase “rumah terbuka” (open house) and said: “Open your eyes, open your hearts, open your souls, open your homes, open house, love, laughter, joy, makanan enak (delicious food).
“Imagine open houses every day for the rest of our lives. All Malaysians, all one, all united.
“A man who does not know his rights has no rights. We are free,” Kerry said.
In October, videos of the woman went viral as she was seen complaining to the shopping centre management that a boutique staffer had put his hands on her to prevent her from entering, an allegation that was denied by the employee.
The woman in the video dubbed “Karen” – the generic name used in the United States for self-entitled white women – went viral and became a top trending topic on social media.
Following this, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the authorities had issued her a compound amounting to RM3,000.
Attempts to contact her for comments yesterday were unsuccessful.