KOTA KINABALU: Veveonah Mosibin, the “treetop girl” who rose to fame after a video of her preparing for and taking an exam in a treetop shelter went viral on YouTube, appears to have gone off the grid.
This comes in the wake of many negative comments made against her online after Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, mistakenly said in Parliament that she did not sit for any exam at that time.
The 18-year-old university student, who hails from an interior village in Sabah with poor road access and Internet connectivity, said she was disappointed and hurt by recent events.
She had also said that she could not handle the negativity.
Veveonah has not been contactable by phone and the last time she uploaded a YouTube video to her channel was about one week ago.
Her last instagram update was on two days ago on Friday (Sept 4), where she posted her exam schedule and said that “Fake news is dangerous, I get lots of negative comments. All clear but we need to be fair. (sic)”
Veveonah said she was sad and disappointed over what transpired as it not only involved her, but her batch mates who had worked hard, many of whom also faced poor Internet connectivity issues when sitting for their exams.
She said there was no stopping what was said in social media but reminded users that negative comments can cause a lot of harm.
On Sept 3, Zahidi was replying to a supplementary question by Senator Datuk Donald Peter Mojuntin who asked what was being done to ensure proper Internet access in rural areas.
The Deputy Minister cited Veveonah's case as an example and claimed that Veveonah was a YouTuber who merely wanted to gain fame and was not sitting for any examination when she uploaded her video in June.
Zahidi apologised to Veveonah in a Facebook post on Thursday (Sept 3), and said he had received inaccurate information.
"I wish to apologise to Veveonah Mosibin and will make a correction in Dewan Negara on Monday (Sept 7)," he posted.
Veveonah’s exams were held from June 9 to 12 and her pre-recorded video was uploaded on June 13.
All clear, but we need to be fair. A post shared by Veveonah Mosibin (@vevemacho) on Sep 3, 2020 at 9:20am PDT
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