First there was the #iheartmalaysia storm during Merdeka, and we thought we took patriotism to the next level.

Then came the #AFFSuzukiCup where the first half of the Final Leg match featuring Malaysia vs Indonesia was played at Bukit Jalil Stadium at Boxing Day. All was well until lasers made an appearance, and the next thing you know, a cyber war erupted! Uncouth Twitteratis from Malaysia and Indonesia starting mudslinging each other, and the result: #malaysiacheatlaser hashtag was the worldwide no.1 Trending Topic, thanks to hundreds and thousands of Indonesian Twitterati!

Some Malaysian Twitterati then retorted with their own hashtag #indonesiasourgrapes which didn’t make it to the trending list. (thank God! Only He knows the number of Msian websites that will be hacked if THAT happened). Responsible Malaysians then gave a hearty comeback with #malaysia and #iheartmalaysia hashtags, even more than could be seen during Merdeka. It was amazing and heartening to see everyone unite, telling their neighbours that it was okay, and that we were also ashamed with the laser incident. I had my fair share of attacks, but like with every situation that goes out-of-hand, it was definitely a heat-of-the-moment thing as everyone is just being too passionate about their country.

Thankfully some really great Indonesians came up to throw their support, saying that the people on the ground weren’t too badly affected by the situation, and that the emotions are just hyped up on the social network. However that didn’t stop new hashtags from coming in as the debate intensed on the Twittersphere the next day. #iloveindonesia and HATE MALAYSIA became top trending, once again proving Indonesia to be a force to reckon with! A twitter user then said “Lucky China is banned from Twitter… imagine with their population, the hashtags would have been dominated by them!” and I just happen to agree.

Heck, even Gizmodo picked up the news and thanks to @tekong, there were even proof that nobody is really innocent when it comes to laser in football games. What, is this turning into a Star Wars-themed sport? Jedi’s on pitch. Nice.

Anyhow, the hatred has died down, and now, the fiercely competitive and hugely unpredictable  reaches its climax in Jakarta tonight with the #HarimauMalaya facing the Indonesia team with a 3 goal advantage at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. Will we see waves of yellow-shirt supporters brave the masses of Indonesian fans there, especially with the sentiments we’ve seen on line?

I don’t know, but I’m sure as hell that with the influential Twitterati of Malaysia starting new wave of hashtag called #MalaysiaBoleh (click to follow live updates), we’ll all be looking forward to a win which will hopefully get Prime Minister @NajibRazak to give us a public holiday in recognition of our national football team joining the ranks of Nicol David and Lee Chong Wei, as champions in ASEAN football!

WATCH IT LIVE @ 8PM, Wed 29th December 2010!
(or you can turn on Star Sports/TV1, more info here)

Epic Swarm
Christopher just unlocked the Epic Swarm badge! Wow! 1,000 foursquare users in the same location?!? According to our math, the world should implode right about now.

WE WON! Malaysia WON! 31st Dec declared public holiday by DS Najib Razak to celebrate! Good on ya #Harimau Malaya, YOU DA BEST!

The tweet brought more than 19 retweets and even more that didn’t mention my nick, I think we got the message across