Obama 'Fever' Grips Malaysians

KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 (Bernama) -- With the impending three-day state visit of the 44th President of the United States to Malaysia beginning Saturday, the Barack Obama "fever" is in full swing. Red Carpet@i-City, the country's home-grown interactive wax museum in Shah Alam has just re-opened with a life-sized exhibit of Obama. The wax museum was partly destroyed by fire about two months ago but immediate restoration work was carried out to ensure it would stay open to coincide with Visit Malaysia Year 2014, said a company spokesman. She said since not everyone could meet Obama personally, a visit to the wax museum would be the closest thing that one could get to "meet" Obama. Nason Ponniah, a nickel pin art artist, has completed a picture of Obama with his wife and two children, Malia and Sasha, made up of 90,000 pins. Nason, who has used 300,000 pins for a pin art work signifying Prime Minister Najib Razak's meeting Obama in Washington DC, some years ago, said he hoped to present the family portrait to the US president during his visit here but admitted that it might be difficult. When Obama won his first presidential election in 2008, Nason completed a portrait of the president using 35,000 pins and couriered it to the White House. But Nason, 60, whose day job is in life insurance, is unsure whether Obama actually received it. (picture) Executive Chairman of I-Berhad Lim Kim Hong (centre) with the President of State of America Barack Obama at Red Carpet i-City in Shah Alam here, Friday. (photoBERNAMA) -- BERNAMA