KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 (Bernama) -- Kota Alam Shah assemblyman M. Manoharan, who ridiculed Datuk Lee Chong Wei's loss to Chinese ace Lin Dan at the 2012 London Olympic badminton final last Sunday, continues to receive flak and brickbats from the public.

This is despite his apology to Chong Wei and his family through his Twitter page yesterday.

Checks by Bernama found that many users of the social networking website were still criticising the DAP leader, urging him to make a public apology to all Malaysians, not only via Twitter.

One particular Twitter user even said that Manoharan should learn to respect national athletes.

"True Malaysians will never condemn our successful athletes," said @mahes_sp.

"You should see how Malaysians make fun of you after you made fun of your own country," said another user, @Leezykrauff.

User @Singhamlyer also shared the sentiment: "Some idiots start to follow @mmanoADUN style. Talk Nonsense Today, Apologise tomorrow," he said.

Manoharan, however, has yet to respond to the latest criticisms. An account registered on Facebook, three days ago, under the name 'Kami tuntut Manoharan Malayalam mohon maaf kepada Lee Chong Wei' (We demand Manoharan Malayalam apologise to Lee Chong Wei) has garnered 6,148 likes, so far.

Yesterday, Manoharan, through his Twitter page @mmanoADUN, said he regretted making all the comments and that he sincerely asked for forgiveness from Chong Wei and his family.

Meanwhile, Cheras Umno chief Datuk Syed Ali Alhabshee said Manoharan had made the comments on purpose to gain publicity.

"He should go and meet Chong Wei and his family to personally apologise to them and also make a public apology to all Malaysians for his rudeness, not just by posting it on Twitter," he told Bernama here today.

PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar also hoped that Manoharan would learn lessons from the episode and try not to repeat the mistake.