Super Ring back in spotlight as MY politicians troll former PM Najib after court ruling

The spotlight is on Super Ring once again as Malaysian politicians began posing with the snack, shortly after former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty earlier this week on seven charges of corruption related to the 1MDB scandal. In May, Najib posted a photo of him eating the Super Ring snack on Facebook to troll former PM Mahathir Mohamad and four other MPs from being fired from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia. Bersatu, which is part of the ruling Perikatan Nasional coalition, is currently led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

This time round, it was the opposition's turn to ridicule Najib, with several leaders posting pictures of themselves eating the snack or posing with it. Malaysian politicians Ng Sze Han, Ong Kian Ming, Najwan Halimi, and Shamsul Iskandar were among those who had a field day trolling the former Prime Minister. 

In his Twitter post, Ng said: "One ring for one charge, how many Super Rings I have on my fingers?". This caption was accompanied by a picture of Ng wearing seven Super Rings on his fingers.

Meanwhile, Ong posted a picture of himself buying the Super Ring snack while Najwan showed himself indulging in it together with his other colleagues. Likewise, Shamsul also showed himself eating the snack, adding on Instagram that Super Ring serves as a delicious snack while he works late into the night to prepare for a speech the next day.

Malaysian activist and graphic designer Fahmi Reza also got in on the fun, turning the snack into a pair of handcuffs being pulled out from its iconic packaging. He also included the famous clown-face caricature of Najib on the image and the caption: "Super Ring for my boss." "Bossku" is a term of endearment used by Najib's supporters to refer to the former Prime Minister.

In 2018, Fahmi was fined RM30,000 and sentenced to one month's jail for uploading caricatures of Najib Razak on social media. He was found to have violated Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 states that a person who creates, initiates the transmission of any comment, request, suggestion or other communication that is obscene, offensive or false with the intent to harass, annoy or threaten another person, will be punished.

However, Fahmi managed to raise RM35,630 at the time of writing in February 2018 through an online crowdfunding campaign. The caricature of Najib emerged as early as 2016, when Fahmi tweeted the image along with a statement of why he drew the caricature and the hashtag #kitasemuapenghasut ("We are all instigators"). Super Ring's manufacturer, Oriental Food Industries, declined to comment on A+M's queries.

While Najib was quick to mock others, he seemed rather salty when it came to jokes targeted at him. He retaliated by reposting a picture of Shamsul eating the snack, reminding him not to overdo it and watch his diet instead.

He added that it was also fun to see someone from the opposition troll him after the recent court decision. "I trolled Pakatan Harapan because its government collapsed, that's for sure. But PH trolled me because I'm going to jail. That is not certain yet as there is still an appeal process and our points are very strong," Najib added. Najib also posted an image of a serious-looking Mohamad Sabu holding a packet of Super Ring, saying: "I reserve my comments on the [picture] below. If a face like this a model for Super Ring, the company will go bankrupt less than month."

Meanwhile according to statistics from Metlwater from 27 to 30 July, 78% of online sentiment was neutral while 20% were positive. Trending themes included "super ring", "lot of ppl" and "suffering". Separately, Super Ring was also catapulted into the spotlight in March this year after a Malaysian activist name dropped the brand during her speech regarding the appointment of the country's Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

A short clip circulating on social media shows the activist saying that some people have the impression that Malaysians are apathetic to politics and only stay at home and eat keropok (deep fried crackers) and Super Ring while watching the news. The female activist also said: "Who is Muhyiddin? I didn't vote for him!"

Seizing the opportunity, Shopee Malaysia leveraged the online chatter to push the sales of Super Ring on its platform. In a Facebook post, Shopee said: "Who says Malaysians don't care about current affairs? For sure, it would be more fun to read or listen to the news with a favourite snack in hand." It also posted a picture of the Super Ring packaging with the caption "Malaysians’ favourite snacks are always on the news."

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