Liew Chin Tong vs. Wee Ka Siong
On March 18, DAP Liew Chin Tong was announced to be the contender for Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat. He will be going against MCA Deputy President Wee Ka Siong.
Based on the media share, Liew had a brief period of fame in the mid-2017. Then, Lim Kit Siang voiced his frustration towards Registry of Society (RoS) over the uncertainty of DAP’s rocket logo usage in PRU-14. Liew supported Lim in this matter. Although Liew had a high media exposure during that period, his name was not used in the headline. The media used DAP instead. Since then, he had a consistent media coverage until February 2018. He was back in the limelight after the announcement that he will be contesting for Ayer Hitam.
Meanwhile, Wee had been pretty consistent throughout 2017 in terms of media share. In January 2018, Wee indirectly defended Forest City from Tun Mahathir accusation on the mega-project saying that it is using Chinese developer. He pointed out that Lim Guan Eng is also using a Chinese developer for Penang undersea tunnel project. He went back-and-forth with Lim for that matter.
In March 2018, Wee had his own event when DAP celebrate its 52nd anniversary. Wee together with Liow Tiong Lai held an MCA rally at Ayer Hitam on the same day. He also held press conference a day later, stating that he is unfazed with Liew as his challenger. Both Wee and Liew become famous in the media because it will be an interesting battle at the Ayer Hitam seat.
When we take deeper look into the diversity of news coverage, Wee had a huge support from The Star. For Liew, he only received coverage from the online news portals.
Both Liew and Wee have made some name for themselves in the media. Thus, people are aware of who they are and what they have done. It will be an interesting seat to monitor for the upcoming 2018 General Election.