Information Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim has made a fair amount of controversial statements but his latest views have made him a Twitter celebrity.
Rais was recently quoted in a Bernama piece, 'Muslims must avoid being totally immersed in Facebook, Twitter' exhorting Malaysians to be wary of the popular Internet services.
His comments have gotten Malaysian Twitter users up in arms, with reactions ranging from ridicule to incredulity. Among Rais' critics is Rembau parliamentarian Khairy Jamaluddin.
Twitter users looked on in amusement as Khairy made snide fun of Rais' comments that urged Malaysians to be wary of compromising their culture to Twitterand Facebook's'Western' influence.
Khairy first made a big show of taking a break from Twitterby Tweeting: “Thanks for your views. As a responsible party man, I shall listen to party elders. This will be my last tweet for a very, very long time.”
Not 24 hours later, he posted: “Tried hard to resist the evils of social media as per someone's advice but clearly I'm easy meat forpenjajahan minda (mind colonisation) by dunia luar (the outside world).
In a post to a fellow Barisan rep in Kota Belud, Sabah, Khairy again made allusions to Rais' statement: “Shout out to @mpkotabelud who's (in) kawasan dilanda banjir (flood-affected area). Hope you're on the ground & not immersing yourself in the Satanic WesternTwitter.”
One final rejoinder so far has been this post on Jan 17: “Long day in Rembau. Now going to eat burgers & pizzas. Allowing self to be colonised by evil food. Ya, not letting this go yet, Mr Minister.”
Malaysian Twitter on fire
Rais also became a talking point on Twitter last night when news of a fire in downtown Kuala Lumpur broke first on Twitter. Twitterusers were reporting the blaze before major news services had gotten word.
Twitter users were the first to know, sharing pictures via the service of the blaze and relaying the location to fellow users.
The Twitter posts about the blaze were labelled with the tag #KLfire, creating a thread of sorts where Malaysians posted news and views about the event.
Somehow the thread devolved into a discussion about Twitter'susefulness and Rais' statement about the 'dangers' of Twitter.
One Malaysian tweeted, “Twitterprobably saved lives today by alerting fire dept and media and public quickly. Rais Yatim, saving lives = western influence?”
Another user also directed his Tweetto Rais, saying “Pakcik Rais, you see how fast and effective Twitter is?”
“Thanks to Twitter that Malaysians (are) being informed about #KLfire. I bet Rais still doesn't know about (the) news.”
According to the site TwitDir there are about 3,574 users who registered Malaysia as their location.
Blogger Zhiq, a social media commentator, put the actual amountof Twitter users in the country for 2009 at 21,657 with a likelihood of that quadrupling to over 80,000 in 2010.
What is certain, however, is that Malaysians are embracing Twitterand Facebook, whatever a certain minister has to say about it.
Rais was recently quoted in a Bernama piece, 'Muslims must avoid being totally immersed in Facebook, Twitter' exhorting Malaysians to be wary of the popular Internet services.
His comments have gotten Malaysian Twitter users up in arms, with reactions ranging from ridicule to incredulity. Among Rais' critics is Rembau parliamentarian Khairy Jamaluddin.
Twitter users looked on in amusement as Khairy made snide fun of Rais' comments that urged Malaysians to be wary of compromising their culture to Twitterand Facebook's'Western' influence.Khairy first made a big show of taking a break from Twitterby Tweeting: “Thanks for your views. As a responsible party man, I shall listen to party elders. This will be my last tweet for a very, very long time.”
Not 24 hours later, he posted: “Tried hard to resist the evils of social media as per someone's advice but clearly I'm easy meat forpenjajahan minda (mind colonisation) by dunia luar (the outside world).
In a post to a fellow Barisan rep in Kota Belud, Sabah, Khairy again made allusions to Rais' statement: “Shout out to @mpkotabelud who's (in) kawasan dilanda banjir (flood-affected area). Hope you're on the ground & not immersing yourself in the Satanic WesternTwitter.”
One final rejoinder so far has been this post on Jan 17: “Long day in Rembau. Now going to eat burgers & pizzas. Allowing self to be colonised by evil food. Ya, not letting this go yet, Mr Minister.”
Malaysian Twitter on fire
Rais also became a talking point on Twitter last night when news of a fire in downtown Kuala Lumpur broke first on Twitter. Twitterusers were reporting the blaze before major news services had gotten word.
Twitter users were the first to know, sharing pictures via the service of the blaze and relaying the location to fellow users.
The Twitter posts about the blaze were labelled with the tag #KLfire, creating a thread of sorts where Malaysians posted news and views about the event.
Somehow the thread devolved into a discussion about Twitter'susefulness and Rais' statement about the 'dangers' of Twitter.
One Malaysian tweeted, “Twitterprobably saved lives today by alerting fire dept and media and public quickly. Rais Yatim, saving lives = western influence?”Another user also directed his Tweetto Rais, saying “Pakcik Rais, you see how fast and effective Twitter is?”
“Thanks to Twitter that Malaysians (are) being informed about #KLfire. I bet Rais still doesn't know about (the) news.”
According to the site TwitDir there are about 3,574 users who registered Malaysia as their location.
Blogger Zhiq, a social media commentator, put the actual amountof Twitter users in the country for 2009 at 21,657 with a likelihood of that quadrupling to over 80,000 in 2010.
What is certain, however, is that Malaysians are embracing Twitterand Facebook, whatever a certain minister has to say about it.
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