You remember this guy, right?
He’s the “Wow, terribly impressed” Minister.
I’m not making the words up. That’s what Gan Ping Sieu, the Deputy Youth and Sport Minister, actually tweeted – “Wow, terribly impressed” – with the achievements of a Star female reporter.
As the montage above shows, there are plenty upsides to being a federal (deputy) cabinet minister. Never a dull moment in your official schedule although I’m not sure if the senator’s female MCA colleague Ng Yen Yen enjoys the same amount of “Wow, terribly impressed” photo ops with male eye candy.
No lah, the woman in yellow evening dress is not the Star reporter. She is Ruby Dhalla, a Canadian former Member of Parliament. And no, their photos were not taken in the same reception room.
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The pictures of our “Wow, terribly impressed” Minister and Ruby are of a different time and different location. I juxtaposed them merely for the sake of illustrating that female politicians – Maggie Thatcher and Angie Merkel are misleading stereotypes – can be just as good looking as the terribly impressive Star Brenda Starrs.
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Deputy Youth Minister, wor
Perhaps the portfolio should be given to the MIC after GE13. But that’s another story for the future.
As the current Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Youth, Gan Ping Sieu should be concerned with the 3 million newly registered voters, most of whom are young people who will be voting for the first time. The BN war room is quite worried as to their votes.
Since the Prime Minister did say that this coming election is going to be driven by the Social Media revolution, the Deputy Youth Minister is, by rights, the most pivotal person to hook up with our emergent youthful Chinese electorate (who are the pro-oppo mainstay).
It does make you wonder: Now, why didn’t The Star make a personality cult out of Gan Ping Sieu as after all the Youth Ministry would have been responsible for various programmes and public activities worth highlighting. Oh I get it — he belongs to the wrong party.
Twits marching to Putrajaya
When last we checked, the Twit Meter reading was 59,387 in Jerusubang. That was some four days ago.
Today, Hannah Yeoh has 59,654 followers on Twitter, an increase of 267 followers or averagely 67 twits a day.
Today Gan Ping Sieu has a 2,246-following on Twitter — an increase of two followers altogether over the same period of time.
Star spiritual cousin of S’gor Times
Why the vast difference in their online popularity? Aside from the fact – which we’ve previously established – that The Star diligently promotes the social media visibility of opposition politicians (especially the Christian ones) in their pages, that is.
Interestingly enough, there is a crony networking going on in Twitterjaya, as happens in any other professional field. For instance, Datuk “Bottom Dollar” (The Star executive editor Wong Sai Wan) is a Twitter buddy of the Selangor Times editor KL Chan — screenshot below.
For that matter, The Star coverage is not much different from the Hic! Hic! LOL contents of Selangor Times.
What is more intriguing though, is the Twitter network of Gan Ping Sieu.
Just to recall, you may remember The Star senior editor who tweeted to Hannah Yeoh, “Read The Star tmrw, YB, there is a surprise” (screenshot below).
Star does not speak for the 15% Chinese
Gan Ping Sieu is in the same category as Saifuddin Abdullah. Many Malay bloggers are surprised that the liberal Saifuddin is even in Umno.
Below is a Hannah Yeoh tweet referring to the very same reporter that Gan Ping Sieu is “terribly impressed” with.
Some readers of this blog, aside from their perplexity with the constant Scissors stabs, are also nonplussed as to why the MCA has allowed the DAP to walk all over them.
So much so that a government-aligned think-tank, Asli, recently found that possibly up to 85 percent of urban Chinese do not support the BN presently.
Show Star the money
The MCA wants to have the cake and eat it too. It allows The Star total freedom as long as huge profits remain to be raked in.
If the market, i.e. readers paying subscription to have The Star delivered to their doorstep daily – are living at Jerusubang addresses,
and if the advertisers target the Jerusubang clientele as they are affluent and have disposable income (you would not find the Hindraf constituency parting with RM1.50 for a newspaper as it is money more necessary for the next meal)
then the Jerusubang kiblat is what The Star will follow because this represents the money-making, profit-delivering business decision, aside from the editors and editorial staff’s own personal bent as well.
The Star has no social conscience
Utusan is taking the hits for Umno and suffering losses in the tens of millions.
The Star, on the other hand, is taking no hits at all for the MCA.
Quite on the contrary, the MCA even allows The Star to tweet that Utusan “print outrageous lies”.
Star spreading Jerusubang propaganda
You cannot make omelette without breaking eggs.
The Star Media Group is serving the Anak Bangsa kool-aid copiously to its 5.63 million audience.
MCA refuses to break a single egg by interfering with the Jerusubang direction taken by the newspaper that it owns because as Wong Sai Wan has revealed, the bottomline is “the bottom dollar”.
For the last five years, The Star despite its extensive readership, has allowed the Chinese-Christian opposition to control the national narrative without putting out the BN-MCA perspective effectively.
The MCA politicians have clearly failed to fight back against the DAP politicians – note that Wanita MCA and Beliawanis are given no platform in The Star – and that is why their party is in the doldrums.
Being pro-establishment does not necessarily preclude a politician from being popular on Twitter. Khairy Jamaluddin, for instance, has 239,818 Twitter followers.
Khairy responds, MCA plays possum
KJ has taken the Hannah bull – “bullshit” – by its horns.
e.g. he tweeted “Still waiting on @hannahyeoh to answer sans emo & BS waffle” (screenshot below).
It has been the Umno media and the Umno bloggers who have been countering the DAP ideological offensive.
Compare Khairy’s Twitter responses with Gan Ping Sieu’s lack of. Khairy holds no government post. Gan Ping Sieu is a Deputy Minister.
MCA has done nothing to blunt the DAP propaganda advance and scorched earth the DAP SuperCyber Bullies leave in their trail of destruction.
The Star has done less than nothing. Worse, it has been scissorsing.
Combine the MCA and The Star proclivities, and you get the person of Gan Ping Sieu – the deputy minister who is “terribly impressed” with the reporter who is Hannah’s bff.
And that is why the MCA men like their jobs.
Easy ride, free lunches. How terribly impressive.
Updated: 2.16pm
Helen Ang 
Gan PS seems pretty comfy on the park bench which is so obviously nowhere in Malaysia.
Maybe after the GE, he can spend more time on the bench feeding birds, reading a book & declaring himself wowed & terribly impressed by passing joggers of the fairer sex.
LOL. I think it’ll be fun to speculate on the post-GE careers of MCA pollies.
That would make a lively forum. At least MCA leaders can have some pointers the day after GE13.
Okay, I’ll put it up, merge.
Can I start the ball rolling?
PS Gan – Park cleaning crew. Lots of sunshine (and rain), exercise, fresh air & terribly impressive women in the vicinity.