“Rafizi’s poor rating as Economy Minister doesn’t commensurate with his social media expenditure”

Focus Malaysia:

“Rafizi’s poor rating as Economy Minister doesn’t commensurate with his social media expenditure”

FORMER Barisan Nasional (BN) strategic communication deputy director Eric See-To has apparently taken a pot shot at Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli for having spent more than RM275,000 on sponsored ads over a four-year period between Aug 4, 2020 and Feb 11 this year yet fared very poorly in a popularity poll conducted by a Facebook community site.

“By the way, that’s only for FB (Facebook). He is also a strong sponsor for YouTube, Twitter and TikTok,” penned the now prominent unity government critic in a Facebook post under the pseudonym “Lim Sian See”.

See-To went on to justify that he purposely shared the Meanwhile in Malaysia FB poll “because I noticed suddenly this morning that there were several people coming to back-up Sotong (moniker for Rafizi which literally means Squid) since yesterday”.

“Maybe they can’t stand it (the poll) anymore and after their meeting, they deployed their troops to defend the dignity of their Sotong. Hence, this poll update is to show whether the Sotong army power is stronger than the voice of netizens or otherwise.”

At the time of writing, the poll which has been running for the past three days has garnered 4,088 votes of which only 2% of netizens who voted supported Rafizi, 4% have no opinion about him while a staggering 94% don’t support him.

According to ad details furnished by Meta Platforms, the Pandan MP would usually spend between RM200-RM299 for each social media content featured on FB and Instagram with an estimated audience size of one million.

A case in point is the spending for the third episode of his “Yang Bakar Menteri” podcast segment with PwC Malaysia partner/executive chairman Datuk Mohammad Faiz Azmi where his sponsored content ran for eight days between Feb 5 and 13.

Based on details made available of the advertiser and having factored in the advertising cost of merely RM200-RM299, Rafizi can be accorded the benefit of doubt of having footed the bill from his own pocket.

However, there were also instances when the PKR deputy president paid between RM500-RM599 for FB and Instagram engagements such as for the second episode of his “Yang Bakar Menteri” podcast segment with Prof Emeritus Dr Barjoyai Bardai whereby the sponsored content run for 11 days between Jan 23 and Feb 3.

As feedback to its poll, the Meanwhile in Malaysia account holder claimed that “honestly, Rafizi has hurt some businesses when he questioned why worry about the greenback-ringgit exchange rate unless they go to the US for shopping”.

“I hope he’s joking because we have businesses in Malaysia who import goods and services into Malaysia and pay using US dollars and if the ringgit weakens more, this will only mean a domino effect of increased cost of living in the country.” – Feb 15, 2024