Now, M'sian PM Najib Has Chinese Facebook 'Ah Jib Gor'

By Alan Ting KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 (Bernama) -- Attention, Facebook users! There is a new friend in town and he goes by the name, 'Ah Jib Gor'. That's Prime Minister Najib Razak's new facebook in Mandarin as another platform to reach out to the wider population in the social media. 'Ah Jib Gor', which means 'Brother Najib' in Chinese, was created to give Najib another forum to get social media users to know him as a person -- an ordinary member of society and not straight-jacket as prime minister. "Ah Jib Gor went online yesterday (Monday). This is going to complement or supplement his existing social media website. We know some Chinese people know both English and Chinese. We want a more effective kind of interaction across the various communities in the country," said the prime minister's political secretary, Wong Nai Chee. He said the Chinese Facebook meant to be apolitical, such as touching on Najib's hobbies and other non-political matters, as not all Facebook users were interested in politics. "He already has other social media which touch on politics. He will not take (the) initiative to post political matters on his Chinese FB (Facebook) even though he can't stop people from posting about politics on the site," he said. Najib has Facebook and Twitter account under his name which have attracted substantial followers. Wong explained the name, 'Ah Jib Gor', was chosen as it was the popular name given to the Najib by social media users and the Chinese population, at large, even before the Chinese Facebook site was created. "We hope by having this, the Chinese segment of the population in the country can get to know the prime minister more as an ordinary person," he said. Since the Chinese version was launched Monday, as at 4.30pm Tuesday, 'Ah Jib Gor' has attracted 1,722 followers. -- BERNAMA