Controversial Malaysian influencer Ms PuiYi announces scholarship fund

Malaysian influencer, Siew Pui Yi who goes by ms_puiyi on social media, will be offering US$1million worth of scholarships for underprivileged students. She took to her Instagram to announce that she wishes to give back to society as she herself came from an underprivileged background. In her caption she wrote, “As a girl who came from an underprivileged background, I always wished that I could have had extra financial help so that I could have furthered my studies.”

SCMP reported last year that Siew had a difficult childhood as she grew up in a lower-middle class family. In an interview with The Vibes TV, Siew said that around the age of five, her father went bankrupt, forcing her mother to be the sole breadwinner.

Siew added on in her caption that she hoped to “make a difference someday, to give equal opportunities to deserving students that can’t afford the education they need to succeed.”

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With over 20 million followers on Instagram, the post has undoubtedly gained much traction. However, not all the reactions were positive given Siew is known for making risqué and bold content, which usually triggers Malaysia’s religious conservatives. Earlier this year, a horror film starring Siew ignited a morality debate as said conservatives referred to the movie as ‘porn’ and called for it to be banned.

The comments under Siew’s post were a mixed bag. While there were netizens who praised her altruistic deed, there were many others who hated on her profession.

According to social listening company CARMA, ever since Siew made the post, negative sentiment towards her have dropped to 0.6%. However, in comparison, analysing social conversations, sentiments were more negative than positive. A closer look at keywords associated with the influencer showed a stark difference before and after her post. 

Before the post:

After the post:

According to Meltwater, 30% of the responses had a positive sentiment, 46.6% were neutral and the remaining 20.6% were actually negative. Additionally, "MsPuiyi is doing alot more than most millionaires out there in Malaysia" is getting retweeted massively.

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