Singapore feng shui master defiant amid disharmony with Cambodia
- It was an inauspicious start to the Lunar New Year for Cheah Fah Loong, who was accused of insulting Cambodia’s royals by turning his back on a ballet
- Despite the negative energy, ‘Master Yun’ has no plans to apologise – and has the backing of Prince Tesso
A feng shui master from Singapore has denied doing anything wrong and refused to apologise after being barred from Cambodia following accusations that he discredited the country’s ancestral heritage and monarchy.
In an interview with This Week in Asia, Cheah Fah Loong, who is better known as Master Yun, insisted that everything he had done “was correct” and he would “never apologise”.
“Can you imagine, if I say I’m sorry that means I have done something wrong. Everything that I have done was correct,” Cheah said.
He was singled out by Cambodian media this month after Prime Minister Hun Sen said a Singaporean had “disparaged the royal family” as he turned his back on dancers from the Cambodian Royal Ballet during a performance in the city state.
“This is so degrading to our culture,” said Hun Sen, who did not name the Singaporean but added that he would not rescind the ban unless an apology was made. “What he did was a grave attack on the monarchy.”
Cheah, 48, who is the owner of the Lotus on Water feng shui gallery chain in Singapore, said the controversy centred on a photograph uploaded on his Facebook page in which he was performing a prayer ritual. Behind him the Cambodian dancers can be seen performing on a red carpet under a canopy.