The Malaysian Insight

THOUSANDS of Malaysian Twitter users are rallying around the #KitaMintaLima campaign, asking the King to carry out five measures to tackle rising Covid-19 infections or change the government.

It is unclear who or what organisation started the campaign, but at the time of writing at least 60,000 tweets have been made about it, and the pace appears to be growing. 

A poster in Malay, with an open palm and the hashtag #KitaMintaLima (translation: #WeAskforFive) at the top, asks that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong carry out five measures: 

* Targeted and effective control orders;

* Support frontliners by channeling all resources to fight Covid-19;

* Automatic bank moratorium and cash assistance to the rakyat throughout the movement control order period;

* Fair standard operating procedures; and,  

* Provide all students with internet devices and access.

At the end of the list the poster said: “Otherwise, change the government.”

The top tweets of the hashtag highlighted by the Twitter search function shows people are mostly in favour of the campaign, as disquiet over the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis grows. 

“For the sake of my patients I am treating in ICU (intensive care unit) and their families, for every Malaysians who are struggling emotionally and physically. Do the right thing YDPA.” said a tweet by @SanHaiji, who gained 1.6k retweets and 1.4k likes.

Elder DAP leader Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary, Syahredzan Johan, said the hashtag has been trending for more than 12 hours.  

“A socmed (social media) campaign that contains five requests from rakyat to the government, which cannot be identified to a single source, which is not initiated by any political party or identifiable NGO, and has been trending for close to 12 hours in Malaysia. Story of #KitaMintaLima is amazing,” said the noted activist lawyer.

The Twitter campaign comes after the government yesterday released a widely panned set of rules for people to celebrate Chinese New Year.

The rules, supposedly designed to curb the transmission of Covid-19, have been criticised for being insensitive towards the Chinese and not making any sense. – February 6, 2021.