Ian Miles Cheong, a hyper-conservative poster from Malaysia popular in the West who has a long-standing interest in American politics, told the Kuala Lumpur newspaper New Straits Times on Saturday that he isn’t an advocate for Israel.
According to some suggestions online, Cheong backpedaled on his online support for Israel because of Malaysia’s tough sedition laws, after a man was arrested for stating Malaysia should open diplomatic ties with Israel.
Cheong made a a series of social media posts backing Israel’s right to exist as well as its right to self-defense after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 last year set off a new phase of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Malaysia doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Its Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim marched with pro-Palestine protesters last year and refused to “bow to Western pressure” by rejecting Hamas, reported Reuters.
Last December, Malaysia arrested a 36-year-old man after he said the country should open diplomatic relations with Israel in an interview on TikTok.
The clip reportedly sparked an uproar among people who claimed the stance didn’t represent the views of the people of Malaysia. According to the country’s strict speech laws, it can be illegal to “bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection” against a ruler.
Now, users are narcing on Cheong for his past statements.
“K but this is a lie though,” posted @SxarletRed on X about Cheong’s denial that he’s pro-Israel, pointing to screenshots of pro-Israel posts Cheong had allegedly made.
At least one of those posts, where Cheong wrote on Oct. 7 that “what you’re seeing now in Israel would happen every day if not for the IDF,” and that “Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend itself,” appears to be deleted on his X account now, though it was archived on Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Cheong didn’t answer a question about whether the posts were accurate or if he’d deleted them.
“His pro-Israel posting finally got him noticed by Malaysia’s Muslim-majority population lol,” wrote @Sturgeons_Law.
Cheong told the New Straits Times that he wasn’t “pro-Israel” and that his views on the conflict were “very nuanced contrary to the regurgitated baseless claims about my past from unreliable far left-wing and transgender sources who have been literally trolling me for years due to my conservative views.”
A thread about Cheong by the inflammatory aggregator @CensoredMen, who frequently posts anti-Israel content, went viral on Thursday.
A separate New Straits Times’ story on that thread collected some examples of outrage among Malaysian posters about his Israel-defending tweets, calling him a “controversial Pro-Israeli political online influencer.”
“@fahmi_fadzil when are you going to take action against Ian Miles Cheong?” posted @chairmanGLC in Malay in response to the @CensoredMen thread, tagging Malaysia’s Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil.
@ChairmanGLC didn’t respond to a question about what sort of action he wanted Fadzil to take.
But some of the responses to his post suggested what they might be.
“his house 5 min from mine, should i pay a visit?” posted @Im_Seiko41.
“Don’t bother. I have been there,” @chairmanGLC responded though. “Old auntie house. Likely a false address.”
