In case you’re wondering why there has been a rise in political content on social media lately, it’s because six Malaysian states which didn’t dissolve their respective Legislative Assemblies (DUNs) during the 15th General Election (GE15) will be holding a State Election on 12 August.
Accordingly, many political parties have announced the constituencies that they are contesting, as well as their respective candidates for the seats. Given the new political landscape we’re living in, many of these candidates may come as a surprise and seemingly out of the blue.
One of which has got to be MUDA’s candidate for N36 Repah in the Negeri Sembilan DUN, Iswan Ishak. An accomplished content creator, Iswan is, unfortunately, most well-known for a controversial video he made some 2 years ago.
As a refresher, Iswan posted a TikTok video which made rounds around the internet that angered a lot of people, including Senator Ras Adiba Radzi, the spokesperson for the differently-abled (OKU) community.
In the video, Iswan narrated that he had “found a way” to get parking easier before pretending to be an OKU and parked at a spot designated for the different-abled.
Iswan has since taken down the video and apologised, saying that the context behind the video was that he wanted to reenact scenes that he saw happening in real life. Furthermore, he stressed that he never intended to mock the OKU community and should’ve inserted a proper ending and context for the video.
Speaking to WORLD OF BUZZ two years ago, Iswan said that he did not mean to trigger anyone with his video and that about 10% of his followers are from the OKU community and they would always complain to him about these kinds of scenarios happening to them. That’s why he thought that he wanted to speak out for them by reenacting the scenes in a video.
Despite the apology and the incident happening two years ago, Iswan’s MUDA candidacy for the N36 Repah seat is still being questioned by Malaysians online. In the replies to MUDA’s candidacy announcement on Twitter, some said that the party can place a better candidate with more credibility instead of one that was shrouded in controversy, with some even tagging MUDA’s president Syed Saddiq directly.
On the flip side, there are also those who asked for Iswan to be given a chance and for voters to judge his character wholly instead of based on the controversy from years ago.
What do you guys think? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Also read: “Allow MUDA to be your voice of conscience” – Syed Saddiq Asks M’sians for a Chance in State Polls
