Congratulations Malaysian tweeples, #yorais is now trending on Twitter. The hashtag was dedicated to our dear Information, Communications, and Culture Minister, Rais Yatim, for his recent comment on the usage of Twitter and Facebook by fellow Malaysians.
As of 19th January 2010, 6:40PM:
Here’s why (What The Trend):
Stands for “Yo, Rais…” Refers to Rais Yatim, the current Malaysian Information, Communications, and Culture Minister. He recently advised Malaysians to not be immersed in the “western culture” that is Facebook and Twitter.
Malaysian Twitter-ers think that he is too old and backward minded to be serving and hence the #yorais hashtag (The Star: Malaysians advised against being immersed in Facebook, Twitter)
With comments like:
a form of business introduced by the West and “Malaysians were just users.”
2. “They are just selling Facebook, Twitter, L-Band and various other services, even through space, as a product but we do not do such business. We accept all this in a state of cultural shock,” he said.
No wonder Rais Yatim became the joke of fellow Malaysian tweeples. Even his own fellow party man, Khairy Jamaluddin, had his share of sarcasm. KJ tweeted “Will constantly remind myself to never, ever diss social media & its users. These guys are merciless.” while #yorais is trending.
Random portion of #yorais timeline:
Rais Yatim had previously intended to implement internet censorship in Malaysia, but called it off later.
When he was the Foreign Minister of Malaysia, he also proposed that Malaysian women who wanted to travel abroad to have consent from their family first, in a bid to prevent them from being used as “drug mules” by international syndicates. Of course, no one thinks it’s a good idea, at all.
Hopefully Rais Yatim won’t accept all this in a state of cultural shock, and congratulations for being the first Malaysian minister to have his name on Twitter trend.