DETRACTORS are seemingly doing their upmost best to deflect credit which is due to Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing as Malaysia beats Thailand to become Southeast Asia’s most visited country for a second consecutive year.
This is pretty obvious as the Bintulu MP was trolled – literally left, right and centre – with derogatory name-calling in the likes of “drunkard minister” or “fatty Chinaman” instead of being accorded a deserving limelight as Malaysia emerged 2025 regional tourism champion thanks to its flexible visa policy and infrastructure improvements.
A clear indicator can be seen when open minded social media influencer Roman Akramovich (@SyedAkramin) showered the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president with praises in reaction to a post by Indonesian comic actor Si Juki (@JukiHoki) as to why tourists are not attracted to visit his country.
“Hate him all you like but you can’t deny the fact that he’s the best-performing Tourism Minister in Southeast Asia,” declared Roman Akramovich.
Hate him all you like but you can’t deny the fact that he is the best-performing Tourism Minister in Southeast Asia. https://t.co/HEhDU4YKaW pic.twitter.com/xepn5ZZE1Z
— Roman Akramovich (@SyedAkramin) January 9, 2026
True enough, Malaysia welcomed 38.3 million foreign arrivals in the first 11 months of 2025 which exceeded the total recorded for the whole of 2024, according to Tourism Malaysia, an agency under the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (MOTAC).
Thailand received only 32.9 million arrivals for the whole 2025, a 7% year-on-year decrease in what was also the first annual drop in international arrivals in a decade outside the pandemic period, Bloomberg reported.
Once a tourism powerhouse in Southeast Asia, Thailand struggled with setbacks last year due to kidnapping, deadly earthquake, border tensions with Cambodia and severe flooding.
However, detractors were quick to pounce on Tiong with deemed Madani backer Irfan_newboys
(@Marchfoward) attributing the success to “pure luck given he’s seen performing even when he’s hardly doing so”.
“Malaysians are diligent in promoting (the country) themselves without the help of MOTAC,” rebutted Irfan.
Sorry tapi dia ni hanya bernasib baik. Sebab tu nampak perform padahal tak sangat
Sebab rakyat Malaysia baik baik. Jadi pelancong asing beri respon baik kepada Malaysia
Dia bekerjasama dengan Starbucks Instead of Zus dan Kenangan Coffee. Bagi aku takleh diterima di saat boikot… https://t.co/fReKOMqLKU
— Irfan_newboys
“The other day, he was gasping for air when her saw Singapore using Sofyank (established Malaysian social media personality/digital content creator Muhammad Sofian Abdullah). How reactive can it be that he (Tiong) wanted to counter using Singapore influencers instead.”
Delving further, Irfan argued that tourists are attracted to Malaysia because “Malaysians are a friendly lot”.
“He collaborated with Starbucks instead of Zus Coffee and Kenangan Coffee. For me, that’s unacceptable when the boycott is going on. Moreover, we’ve (many) local brands,” he chided.
“The Malaysia Gatekeeping campaign on social media that netizens themselves initiated is instrumental in making people curious to see Malaysia. That’s all.”
Another travel enthusiast Zac (@ZacZakirin13) concurred with Irfan that “tourists come to Malaysia because they really want to come to Malaysia”.
“Not because of the so-called ‘promotion’ by the Tourism Minister,” he snubbed. “Malaysia is currently trending in the eyes of the world. Even if Rani Kulup (comical activist/army veteran) is made the Tourism Minister today, foreign tourists will still flock Malaysia.”
Pelancong dtg Malaysia, sbb mmg nak dtg Malaysia.
Bukan sebab “promosi” dari Menteri Perlancongan.
Malaysia tgh trending di mata dunia. Letak lah Rani Kulup jd Menteri Perlancongan hari ni sekali pun tetap pelancong luar negara nak dtg Malaysia. https://t.co/3k97Sdxk09
— Zac (@ZacZakirin13) January 11, 2026
Whether the Malaysian Tourism Minister deserves credit or otherwise, it seems that quite a number of netizens out there think that Malaysia is destined to be Southeast Asia’s regional star with or without Tiong.
On that note, don’t be surprised that the original poster Roman Akramovich was accused of doing a bootlicking exercise with his singing praises on Tiong.
Beyond that Tiong’s effort to lobby visa exemption for Chinese travellers for a further five-year with the option to extend for an additional five years has certainly hit the raw nerve of rightist Malaysians (the waiver was first rolled out in December 2023 and has extended until 2026).
This could be a unique case of the numbers don’t speak for themselves but certainly all eyes will be on the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) minister to prove his critics wrong in the current Visit Malaysia Year (VMY 2026). – Focus Malaysia
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