SUNGAI PETANI, Aug 26 (Sin Chew Daily) — A teenager is excited that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad keeps the ornamental fish sold by him at his office.

Cheng Jia Yung, 17, shares the joy on Twitter that the ornamental fish sold by him landed in Dr Mahathir’s office in Langkawi.

Cheng, an SMK Seri Ampang Ipoh student, told Sin Chew Daily this was his first time selling ornamental fish to a heavyweight person.

Cheng did not realize that Dr Mahathir requested his aide to buy ornamental fish and thought it was a prank until the aide furnished him with Dr Mahathir’s office address in Langkawi.

When Dr Mahathir’s aide called him to enquire about the price of ornamental fish, Cheng thought he was just one of the many customers.

Dr Mahathir’s aide later told Cheng Dr Mahathir was buying the fish from him to support young people in business during this difficult time.

The aide also told Cheng that he could request Dr Mahathir to leave some comments and the aide would take the picture of the comments for him.

“In my letter, I thanked Dr Mahathir for his contribution to Malaysia and also his support to buy ornamental fish from me,” said Cheng.

Cheng delivered a total of three pairs of ornamental fish to Dr Mahathir by courier on August 16. The aide replied Cheng that the fish arrived on August 18.

“I shared the photo of Dr Mahathir with the fish on Twitter on Aug 24. Within seconds, the tweet was shared by 5,018 and received 16,000 likes.”

Cheng also uploaded a 30-second video clip of Dr Mahathir wishing him all the best in the fish rearing business and hoped the young man would become successful in the ornamental fish rearing industry some day.

Dr Mahathir bought Plakat fish priced between RM15 and RM40.

Cheng partners with his elder brother Jia Le in the ornamental fish business. 

He was excited to sell the ornamental fish to Dr Mahathir two months into this business.

Cheng said he focused on online sale while his elder brother was breeding the fish.

Cheng received many enquiries on prices of ornamental fish after he tweeted about selling ornamental fish to Dr Mahathir.

“My best record is selling eight ornamental fish in a day,” he said.

Sometimes Cheng does not have any sale for an entire day.

“I like to watch ornamental fish. When I have a lot of homework, watching ornamental fish is one way to relax and it’s fun,” he said.

WEHHHH ITS REAL? TANGAN TUNM PEGANG GAMBAR SAYA ??? https://t.co/fE2t5Gtr8O pic.twitter.com/IqLkP3L94j

— ᴄʜᴇɴɢ♛ (@cheng_jiayung) August 24, 2021