Independent Semenyih candidate ‘Uncle Kentang’ gets positive feedback
Today marks the 10th day of Semenyih by-election campaign. A four-cornered fight is set to take place on March 2 featuring Aiman Zainali for Pakatan Harapan (PH); Zakaria Hanafi for Barisan National (BN); Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and Kuan Chee Keng or popularly known as Uncle Kentang who will be standing as an independent candidate.
While PH’s candidate Aiman Zainali and BN’s Zakaria Hanafi are two main focus of the by-election, people seem to take a liking on Uncle Kentang who had gotten his title from his kind gesture of handing potatoes for the needy.
In the mainstream media, the independent candidate has been very vocal about helping the poor in Semenyih.
In his time, he is also known as the ‘10 cent man’ for providing flea markets, ambulances and taxi services to the poor for the price of just 10 cents. The top contender is between PH and BN candidatess. But it is a surprise that neither Aiman Zainali nor Zakaria Hanafi make it into the top influencers list. However, independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng @ Uncle Kentang is the one who makes the list at number 10 with 286 statements.
Some of the top issues that he talks about are starting ‘pasar 10 sen’, defending smokers’ rights amid fear of declining sales and pushing on transportation agenda.
Additionally, Uncle Kentang generally has a positive reaction from the netizens in the social media. Many show their support towards him.
While the media reports on PH candidate, Aiman Zainali went ‘missing’ and forgetting his pass, Uncle Kentang is going full force in the media pledging for the poor in the state seat.
Currently, the battle for Semenyih is focusing on PH versus BN. Thus, standing as an independent candidate, Uncle Kentang chance of winning seems to be slim. However, looking at the current social media sentiment on Uncle Kentang, he has definitely made an impression to the people of Semenyih.