PETALING JAYA: Clothes make the man, Mark Twain once said, paraphrasing Shakespeare – and sometimes, clothes may even transform you into someone else in another's eyes.
This was what former education minister Dr Maszlee Malik experienced when his daughter's university professor mistook him for China's Mao Zedong after seeing a portrait on a shelf in his office.
"I have this picture in my office," Maszlee wrote on Twitter of a portrait showing him dressed in a similar outfit favoured by the former Chinese leader.
"When my daughter was doing her online meeting, her professor saw it and remarked, 'Oh, I never knew you are a great admirer of Chairman Mao!"
Maszlee’s tweet gained the attention of many users, with mixed reactions from suggesting that the former minister lecture the professor instead, or that his daughter should switch schools quickly.
(The professor is apparently from a private university in Washington, DC.)
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"Takkan lah Chairman Mao dgn mantan YB MM tak boleh bezakan! (How could the professor not tell Chairman Mao apart from you)" wrote another.
Deputy Finance Minister and Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim replied to the tweet addressing Maszlee as "Chairman Maz".
Maszlee joked that he was now a jobless chairman in reply.
Other users quipped that he looked like Kuomintang leader Dr Sun Yat Sen instead.
However, some of Maszlee's followers agreed with the professor and said they saw a resemblance too.
Perhaps the Bard knew what he was talking about after all when he wrote that the apparel oft proclaims the man.
I got this pic in my office. When my daughter was doing her online meeting, her Professor asked her, “Oh never knew you are a great admirer of Chairman Mao!” https://t.co/uD2iB9sxzI"
— Maszlee Malik (@maszlee) https://twitter.com/>pic.twitter.com/uD2iB9sxzIa> maszlee/status/ 1606855382630268934?ref_src= twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2022
