Stop spamming my phone, Raja Nong Chik!

Zan Azlee (The Malaysian Insider)

If there is one thing that I hate to death, it is spam. Getting spam email is one of the most annoying things ever.

Even more annoying are spam SMSes... you know, the ones that tell you about cheap beer at various nightclubs or discounts at popular restaurants.

But recently, the most annoying spam SMSes I have received are from a certain politician and Cabinet minister who goes by the name of Raja Nong Chik.

It started when I decided to register to vote slightly less than a year ago. Registration went fine with no glitches (i.e. suddenly finding out I’m registered to vote in Sabah!)

My constituency, according to my IC address, is Lembah Pantai. As we know, the current MP in that area is PKR’s Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Since I didn’t vote in the last general election, I can’t claim to have played a role in getting her into office.

And now that the 13th general election is coming up, rumour has it that Umno will be fielding Raja Nong Chik in Lembah Pantai.

Now right after I had registered to vote (at the Election Commission office in Shah Alam), I started receiving the SMSes.

The first one wished me Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha, signed off with “RAJA NONG CHIK.”

I was quite shocked! I had only just registered a couple of weeks ago and now this Cabinet minister already had my mobile phone number.

I was about to cry “personal data theft!”, but quickly restrained myself. Good thing I did because, apparently, there is no such law against that in Malaysia.

After that, it just went on and on. I started receiving New Year greetings, advice on how to spend my Ramadan and even an invitation for Lailatul Qadar prayers.

Last month, I even received an SMS that had the hash tags #MERDEKA55 and #JANJIDITEPATI! He could be using the same bot service as #YORAIS!

The last straw came last Tuesday. My iPhone blew out the fog-horn ring tone, indicating that an SMS had come in so I quickly checked my phone.

When I noticed it was from Raja Nong Chik, I just got annoyed. But what pushed me to the edge was the content of the SMS itself.

“SLMT HARI LAHIR. Moga terus berjaya. Sama2 kita berdoa di hari lahir anda, agar agama, bangsa & tanahair terus terpelihara. Ikhlas: Raja Nong Chik, Menteri WPKB.” (Happy birthday. May you have continuous success. Let us pray on your birthday that our religion, race and homeland are protected. Sincerely: Raja Nong Chik, FTUW.)

I couldn’t take it anymore and although I knew it was useless, I immediately typed and sent a response to the bot mobile phone number.

“You got it wrong. My birthday is in June.”

Now, every time I’m in Bangsar or its surrounding vicinity, and I see a poster, banner or bunting with Raja Nong Chik’s face on it, I get turned off.

I literally feel sick and this is without even listening to him speak about his policies and promises. So much so that I’m inclined to vote for the other candidate.

I guess his plan to garner votes (that is if he really is going to contest in the Lembah Pantai constituency) is back-firing.

What he needs is someone with a decent enough level of intelligence to advise him on his A&P campaign. It’s really simple actually and I think I’ll SMS him my advice: “Don’t irritate your voters.”