#Kangkung was a Malaysian social media meme that started yesterday on January 13th 2014. It was prompted by a brief video clip of Prime Minister Najib Razak giving a speech as seen below (from minute 0:46 onwards):
In the video, the PM spoke about the price fluctuation of goods and questioned why the government gets criticised when prices increase but doesn’t get praised when prices decrease. He then gave the example of kangkung (water spinach) that had recently dropped in price. Netizens responded with all kinds of mocking statements and images deriding the PM for this statement, primarily using the hashtag #Kangkung.
While we did not specifically monitor the hashtags related to this meme while it was spreading, we do monitor keywords related to Malaysian politics. Based on this we compiled the following lists of popular tweets. Ranking was based on the number of users who shared the content on Twitter, and divided between media and mentions (tweets without media).
Top Mentions
Tak yah kecoh psl kangkung. @NajibRazak bagi cnth bukan semua benda naik harga. Ada yg naik sbb faktor cuaca dll. Rasional sket la.
— Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) January 13, 2014
Akan datang: PUK1MA – Program Usahawan Kangkung 1Malaysia
— Adrian Ng (@AdrianNCF) January 13, 2014
LOGIK UMNO | Rakyat kerja macam nak mampos sampai jadi jerangkung. PM kurangkan harga kangkung.
— malaysiangags (@malaysian_gags) January 13, 2014
@Khairykj all due respect YB, but #Kangkung has just become a symbol for how out of touch the rakyat feels BN is abt the cost of living.
— Sheahnee Iman Lee (@sheahneeimanlee) January 13, 2014
Rasa nak makan #kangkung la malam ni. Dulu tak mampu sebab kangkung mahal. Sekarang Alhamdulillah murah dah. Terima kasih @NajibRazak.
— Oh! Media (@ohtweet) January 13, 2014
Top Media
Tahniah DS @NajibRazak . Bolehlah kami bayar tol, petrol dan lain-lain guna kangkung nanti. pic.twitter.com/Z9rizD4bCY
— Ustaz Azhar Idrus (@ustazazharidrs) January 13, 2014
UMNO juga turut mempersembahkan filem pertama mrk bertajuk "Kangkung" yg akn TURUN dipawagam seluruh negara. GAMBAR pic.twitter.com/DjP2rAtc7e
— KOTAK SUARA (@gengbebel) January 13, 2014
"Perasmian majlis Projek Usahawan Kangkung 1Malaysia" -PUK1MA pic.twitter.com/cLJIkOm6Jl
— Politaiko (@politaiko) January 13, 2014
Terima kasih kerajaan! #BNBagus #Kangkung pic.twitter.com/9XBvN0UZh3
— Windranger (@syajerin) January 13, 2014
Mulai hari Ini Rakyat 1 Malaysia boleh memanggil saya dengan nama #PMKANGKUNG @NajibRazak pic.twitter.com/JnV5RAu1zm
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
Terima kasih yg tak terhingga dr pejuang rakyat kepada @NajibRazak disebabkan harga kangkung TURUN.. pic.twitter.com/KZVHn8QDpm
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
Kangkung TURUN harga @NajibRazak PM kangkung pic.twitter.com/DU5FqFNPM5
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
Solidariti #kangkung satu malaysia.. pic.twitter.com/8hutIfe0jq
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
Hujah YB @Khairykj Bernas dlm isu #Kangkung,tp Malang sekali pengerusi Biro Media Baru @ibdil pun tak sambut :( pic.twitter.com/oDU59CmTs9
— Sir.Zapa (@Zapa__) January 13, 2014
Dulu hrga kangkung mhl, hdup aku dlm kemurungan. Tday hdup aku hepi sgt sbb hrga kangkung dh trun. TQVM @NajibRazak pic.twitter.com/cnjvtuug6H
— OREO.BLOG (@hazrulchangmin) January 13, 2014
ARTIS JUGA TAK LUPA MENGUCAPKAN TERIMA KASIH KEPADA KERAJAAN UMNO/BN DI ATAS JASA MENURUNKAN HARGA #kangkung pic.twitter.com/r7TVZE8hCp
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
Mulai 13 jan 2014 utk bayar tol guna lah #kangkung yg baru oleh #PMKANGKUNG @NajibRazak harga turun.. pic.twitter.com/q0MnUpp591
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
@NajibRazak Next time i pass toll i pay with #kangkung ok ;D #Malaysia pic.twitter.com/vvAzJwq0SG
— One Tree Day (@OneTreeDay) January 13, 2014
"@PutraREFORMASI: Tenang diri..tarik nafas panjang2..ingat #PMKANGKUNG @NajibRazak pic.twitter.com/dlXO8KQOmQ"
— Izzuddinnnnn. (@IzzuddinIzaham) January 13, 2014
#PMKANGKUNG. @NajibRazak menyampaikan bantuan #kangkung 1 malaysia pd yg memerlukan.. pic.twitter.com/YmTT8DpwWo
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
"@DonJuan6009: RT "@bondfendi: PM @NajibRazak..jemput pekena kangkong cicah kopi 0!! pic.twitter.com/25jvFyaNl8" Hahaha
— Bukan Tokey Sarkis™ (@farhanzahari) January 13, 2014
“@anwaribrahim: "@milosuam: Kangkung ni makcik ambik je tepi parit, kalau Dato Najib nak, makcik bagi free je… pic.twitter.com/0EmABIQCvV"” 😅
— shahreza sabirin (@shahrezasabirin) January 13, 2014
RAKYAT BERTERIMA KASIH DIATAS JASA UMNO/BN KERANA MENURUNKAN HARGA #kangkung . pic.twitter.com/3gP3nQ2PEv
— PEJUANG RAKYAT (@PutraREFORMASI) January 13, 2014
Note
We collected #Kangkung-specific tweets later in the day and found that despite thousands of tweets per hour, #Kangkung did not officially trend in Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur. However UMNO did trend for 150 minutes with a much lower volume of tweets. It is possible that kangkung is a common word that cannot trend on Twitter.
Top Mentions ranking is based on the number of users who retweeted the tweet. Top Media ranking is based on the number of users who shared the URL of the photo. Content shared or retweeted by automated spammers is filtered out.
Shares reflect the number of times the content was shared on Twitter during the reported period. Our system does ranking by URL and tweet text and filters it for spammers. This uncovers content that would not be found going by RT count alone, because users often copy and paste tweet text instead of retweeting.
We then perform ranking based on the number of users to emphasise the number of users reached.
The date/timestamp displayed in the tweet may not conform to your time-zone. To confirm, hover your mouse over the date/timestamp and the UTC+0 timestamp should appear. You can then adjust the timestamp accordingly.
