Today, it has more than 400,000 active followers, about 70% under the age of 34. The majority of them are in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru.

Speaking to FMT, three of the content creators behind the page said they call politicians Nobita on the TTKM site because that character in the Japanese animated series Doraemon had lots of useful gadgets but was too ignorant to use them.

They accuse Malaysian politicians of being the same – they have all the power and allocations, but keep coming up with ineffective policies that miss the mark.

Aside from making fun of the government of the day through humorous posts, images and memes, the deeper objective for the creators of the site is to teach impressionable youngsters about politics, encouraging them to think for themselves instead of being fooled by devious politicians.

“We now have a cult following which never fails to ‘like’ or comment on our page,” said one of the content creators, who wanted to be known only as Jack.

He has always been sceptical about so-called non-partisan media organisations.

“Some of them quote unnamed sources, so it’s too easy for them to play around with people’s perceptions,” he said.

He and his friends turned to social media – Facebook in particular – which is free, easily accessible and guarantees a wide audience. Some of their posts get up to 130,000 views.

“It’s the most effective medium for us to convey our message. The reach is wide and fast. And a lot of young Malaysians are on Facebook,” he said.

For those not on Facebook, the “army” also has its own website.

Another member of the team, who only wanted to be identified as Neo, said that these days engaging the young requires content that is short, straightforward and funny.

He said their catchy, satirical posts are aimed at the younger generation, who otherwise would not usually be interested in politics.

Neo’s colleague, Gary, said that reaching the young is important in order to develop a critical electorate who will not vote based on trends and politicians’ empty rhetoric.

“It happened to me. The first time I voted, it was for Pakatan Rakyat because that was the cool thing to do. The anti-establishment movement was a trend back then.

“We want youngsters to be more aware than I was,” he said.

“Voters should understand who they are electing, and what they will do for them if they win.”

Gary said using Bahasa Malaysia on the site means that everyone will be able to understand their message.

TTKM also covers constitutional matters, environmental issues and economic policies.

For example, a popular topic nowadays is the rising cost of living in Malaysia. Another hot subject is freedom of speech.

Having been online critics of the government for the past five years, the team are no strangers to being investigated. Five of them have previously been arrested.

Jack said there can be no freedom of speech as long as the Sedition Act 1948, various sections of the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, and the Official Secrets Act 1972 are still around.

He and his colleagues maintain that freedom of speech is essential in a democracy, although they do admit that to maintain harmony, Malaysia still needs some regulations for matters involving race, religion and monarchy.

“We know what we can and cannot do,” Jack assured me.

“We are against hate speech and avoid curse words and derogatory terms. Even our below the line comments are filtered for these things,” Jack said.