
‘Listen here, you idiot’: #SiBodohKauDengarSini trends on Twitter in Malaysia amid coronavirus lockdown frustration
- The hashtag has been the country’s top-trending topic for two days after striking a chord with hungry, angry Malaysians
- It was triggered by difficulties ordering food, but is now being used to articulate dissatisfaction over the Muhyiddin administration’s handling of the pandemic
Her words have resonated with netizens disappointed by the government’s handling of the pandemic, and the resulting hashtag has since been tweeted more than 62,000 times.
“#SiBodohKauDengarSini is such a powerful hashtag,” tweeted Effi Saharudin, head of content at tech news portal Amanz.
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“This perfect storm of incompetence resulted in this funny hashtag resonating with people,” Effi said.
On Tuesday, the restrictions were extended to all states except Sarawak in Malaysia’s east.

The country’s king last week also agreed to declare a state of emergency to give authorities more power to combat the pandemic, though critics said this offered a political reprieve to the embattled Muhyiddin, who is struggling to stay in power.
Quiet falls over Malaysia, with residents in lockdown after last night of travel and dining out
“#SiBodohKauDengarSini signifies deep anger and frustration,” said Saddiq, who was youth and sports minister before the political coup that saw Muhyiddin take power in March last year.
He said last year Malaysians had started the hashtag #KitaJagaKita, or “we look after each other”, to show what needed to be done when the government failed.
“Now, it’s no longer a polite hashtag,” he said. “Malaysians in general are very tolerant and polite people, but when they start cursing, you know you’ve crossed the line.”
Among the sticking points, he said, was that “big factories” were allowed to operate normally “despite being the largest contributors of Covid-19” due to housing migrant workers in cramped, dirty conditions.
“But food deliveries [for] the small guys must end at 8pm. Why?” he said. “Does Covid-19 magically disappear after 8pm?”
In November last year, more than 5,000 workers of Malaysian firm Top Glove, the world’s biggest rubber glove maker, tested positive for Covid-19 in what emerged as the country’s largest cluster of the disease.
On Saturday, Top Glove said some employees at four of its factories had recently tested positive for Covid-19, but it did not provide specific numbers. The company’s plants are among those that have been allowed to operate under the latest lockdown regulations.
Dr Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said the hashtag struck a chord because many Malaysians could barely cope with the socioeconomic hardships they were facing as a result of the pandemic.
“At the very least, they have difficulties not only in affording [food] but in finding ways to efficiently put bread and rice on the table,” he said.
“This is coupled with the government’s perceived clumsiness in handling the pandemic as well as its eagerness in aggregating emergency power. So the hashtag with its underlying notion of helpless haplessness resonates widely in the Malaysian cyberspace.”
