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Malaysia: Government Issues
 | In this section: 1) Political issues 2) Blogging overview 3) Government responses 4) Letters from the public 5) SMS from the public Other pages in this section: : |
This page studies how Web 2.0has shaped communication and compelled the government to reexamine how it handles news and conversations that are taking place in the political arena. While the government is fighting to defend the place of traditional media, we see a distinct trend in audiences shifting from mass media to the new social media. There is an emerging generation of people who rely heavily on the internet. Thus, they would have a higher consumption of content on the web as compared to the older generation. At this point in time, it seems like most government are pro traditional media while opposition members are utilizing the opportunities present in the new media to disseminate information and openly discuss issues that will otherwise not take place in the traditional media.
However there are hints of change, as current Prime Minister, Najib Razak, clearly believes that avoidance or repression is no way to deal with the surge in social media use in Malaysia. He has since created accounts on Twitter (with over 11 thousand followers) and Facebook (with over 95 thousand followers) in the hopes of being connected and bridging the gap between the government and the people. He also organised a tea party that saw about 300 of his followers on Facebook being invited.
While, it remains unclear as to whether or not more Malaysian officials will follow suit, the proliferation of blogs and social media tools adopted by Malaysians may prove to be too hard to quell.
| Political Issues |
| Control of New Media |
Young politicians are also particularly receptive towards adopting social media so as to enhance their competitiveness. Khairy Jamaluddin of and Tony Pua of the DAP are known to exchange political jibes on Twitter. While the online space in Malaysia is largely dominated by the opposition parties, the Barisan Nasional have realised the consequence of ignoring political rants towards the party during the last general elections, and are expected to increase their online presence.
DR Mahathir Mohamad, a well-known and respected opposition party member backed bloggers who criticize the government, saying 'If you suppress news, alternate news will be given credence. Attempts to control bloggers are bound to fail.'
A report here tells of how the traditional media covers only stories praising the government and its achievements. Just like DR Mahathir Mohamad said, alternate news is generated online and oppositions such as The Democratic Action Party (DAP) take their campaigns to cyberspace. When local traditional media appear partisan, then people will naturally turn to online information which they believe is more objective. Most people think that bloggers have, by and large, been responsible, and hope that the future trend would see bloggers reporting the truth without exaggeration in order to maintain its credibility.
| The Government Defends Traditional Media |
For some time now, the government has been waging war on a group of vocal bloggers, including well-known former journalists and the former premier's eldest daughter, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir. The blogosphere have been a thorn in the government's side, exposing all kinds of stories, including one on the purchase of a new VIP jet and the alleged misuse of development funds for political purposes. Several ministers have given warnings several prominent bloggers and even went as far to suggest that they register so that the government could keep track of them. At the same time, the Malaysian government is trying to defend the role and influence of traditional media, by making statements that say news carried by the traditional media, such as television, still plays a crucial and interpretative role that audiences cannot do without despite the increased Internet usage. It suggests through the medium of traditional media like newspapers that ‘Internet and new media competed for people's time and left questions and doubts in the users' minds about the content, interests and sources, and that rumors and sensationalized stories and even outright lies were being spewed out in the name of news’.
"It is the reason why the television news audience expands substantially when a truly major news story first breaks, especially among those who are interested in politics and current issues," Dr Lim said in his speech at the switch of ntv7's English news edition to the 8 pm prime-time slot.
"Studies have also shown that television news still leads the Internet news by a wide margin, especially with the young adults, professionals and students as well as older people, giving television the overall edge," he claimed.
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In January, 2010, the Information, Communications, and Culture Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Rais Yatim, created a stir in the social media realm when he commented that Malaysians should avoid being immersed in social networking sites and tools such as Facebook and Twitter. He also pressed that Muslims, in particular, should avoid such platforms so as to protect traditional values and beliefs from western influences.
Malaysian twitterers did not respond favorably to the comment and created a #yorais hashtag to attach to comments on how "backwards" and "ancient" they felt he was. This move proved to be so popular that the topic soon surged and assumed the top three trending topics on twitter at one point.
Malaysian social media users felt that there was a discrepancy between the government's move back in the 1990s (introducing the Multi-media Super Corridor that promised no censorship) and the minister's comments that aimed to discourage the use of internet social media.
| Blogging Overview |
| Top 10 Social-Political Blogs |
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| The New Media : Blogs The way media is consumed has changed dramatically around the world, and it is no exception in Malaysia. The younger generation is shifting away from traditional media to the new media, especially blogs. A number of prominent bloggers in the country include: It appears that Malaysians have an appetite for political, entertainment and technology blogs in general. While entertainment and technological blogs are enjoying exponential growth in number of hits, political blogs have come under the close scrutiny of the government for posting negative remarks about its policies and scandals of its officials. |
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Political websites in the new media entered the scene as early as the 2000 general election. At that time, there were only less than 300,000 Internet subscribers. Nevertheless, it was still a lethal campaign tool for the opposition forces to discuss the cause of Anwar Ibrahim’s imprisonment then. The number of Internet subscribers in recent years has ballooned to over 11 million and comparatively, there are only about 10 million voters. There is an overlap of about 70% between the two groups in the city areas. The BN is acutely aware of the impact of the New Media on its control in the country. Currently, the Generation X, people born between 1965 and 1976, are the ones who find it easiest to adapt to the New Media. But an even more IT savvy generation, the millennial generation who are born between 1977 and 1998 will find the New Media the preferred choice of communication. This would be a point that can prove lethal if underestimated by the BN. To add fuel to the fire, the blogosphere in Malaysia appears to be extremely united. To support its community of bloggers, the National Bloggers Alliance (NBA) and the Bloggers United Malaysia (BUM) have been set up to protect and promote blogging in Malaysia. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Realizing the influence and the number of audience certain bloggers commands, the government has requested bloggers using locally hosted websites to register with the authorities two years back, as one way to prevent the spread of information that is in opposition to itself on the Internet. Unfortunately, it was met by a furious back lash from the cyberspace. For a start, there are free blog-hosting services like Blogspot.com and Wordpress.com that carry anonymous bloggers within Malaysia. It is not more than possible to enforce this policy anymore than it is to dilute the voice of bloggers in the political scene. Aware of the censure heaped on him in the Internet after Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor made the announcement in the parliament, he replied "I only said 'maybe' we would do it (registration). I never said the word 'censor', "We just want to know the number of bloggers, how many are active, how often they update their websites, and what kind of info is posted. It has nothing to do with censoring." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Letters (from Public) |
| Ref :NST ONLINE, 2008/03/30 'Bloggers must be fair' |
| JOHOR BARU: Bloggers who criticise the government should be brave enough to post responses from the government. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said government leaders trying to respond directly to allegations in the blogosphere about their performance and private lives had been rebuffed. "The bloggers irresponsibly erase our comments to prevent the public from reading our explanations on issues raised by them. "I therefore challenge these bloggers to face the truth by posting our comments instead of giving one-sided commentaries on issues and misleading the public." Khaled said criticisms by bloggers could appear as the truth to the public, especially the younger generation. "This will cause them to hate the government if these criticisms are repeated by the bloggers," he said after opening the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Johor Jaya 1 yesterday. Khaled said the time had come for the authorities to keep bloggers in check. |
| Ref: NST ONLINE, 2008/03/28 Alternative media: It's time the MPs joined Internet age (By : NAZREEN TAJUL ARIF, Mersing) |
| I THINK it is vital all media of communication technology are used to their maximum potential. In this context, it is a shame that some members of parliament interviewed in a newspaper have never used a computer, let alone have a blog or website. They had not used the Internet to reach out to the public, claiming there were no Internet facilities in their constituencies. The prime minister has acknowledged the power of the Internet, saying that Barisan Nasional lost the online war and it was a serious misjudgment "to dismiss the alternative media as unimportant" ("Internet served a painful lesson" - NST, March 26). Hence, at this stage and age, not having Internet facilities should not be cited as reasons for anyone not using communications technology. Reports have shown that more young people are turning to the Internet to get information, communicate and have online discussions or political debates. It's time MPs joined the technology-savvy generation. |
| SMS (from Public) |
| Ref: STAR ONLINE, Sunday March 30, 2008 Role played by SMS in election outcome (By: FOONG PEK YEE, LEE YUK PENG and NG CHENG YEE) |
| Whether it contributed to the unexpected outcome of the last general election or not, SMS was widely used as a cheap and effective means of getting the message to the masses, especially by the Opposition. THESE days, mobile phones have become so indispensable that many of us just cannot leave home without it. And people aren’t just talking on their mobile phones but they are also using them to send quick messages via SMS (short message service). In fact, SMS or text messaging has become so popular it has spawned a “thumb generation” of phone users who view it as the most efficient means of communication. During the recent general election, SMS was effectively used by politicians, especially among those in the Opposition, as a means of disseminating information. Actually, they may have taken the cue from other countries where SMS has been used to mobilise people. In the Philippines, for instance, SMS is said to have helped topple the government in 2001. Time magazine in a report in 2004 noted that SMS had directed 700,000 demonstrators to Manila’s People Power shrine to demand the removal of then president Joseph Estrada, who subsequently stepped down in favour of his vice-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In the recent general election here, media-savvy politicians discovered that SMS was a very economical and effective medium to reach out to the masses compared to conventional methods like putting up posters and banners or television advertisements. Nevertheless, there were others who felt that the effectiveness of SMS was exaggerated. > Dr Wee Ka Siong, MCA Youth secretary-general and newly-appointed Deputy Education Minister Barisan Nasional overlooked the effectiveness and impact of SMS in this general election. Besides, Barisan being always the “gentleman”, it meant most of its messages tended to be “not appealing enough” to the public. It is only the messages that make you laugh that you feel like sharing with others. Otherwise, people just don’t bother reading or forwarding them. The Opposition optimised the usage of SMS, which partly contributed to the political tsunami in the recently-concluded general election. > Tian Chua, Parti Keadilan Rakyat information chief It is all about hard work and perseverance and PKR took three years to collect the phone numbers and data. We have a subscriber network to send information via SMS to members and supporters. It provides direct delivery to individual voters and is cheaper than billboards and advertisements. For 5 sen for one message, I spend RM100 to send 2,000 messages to the people. For the same amount, I can only buy three banners measuring 2m by 0.75m. > Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar, PAS secretary-general PAS did not officially use SMS but there were PAS supporters who used it. I was told that Malays are very fond of disseminating information via SMS. For instance, SMS was used to check whether Nurrul Izzah had won. I believe SMS has also helped to deliver messages from the city to rural areas. In Kelantan, for instance, there was not much effort to use SMS. > Liew Chin Tong, Bukit Bendera MP and election strategy adviser to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng The SMS has allowed people from all walks of life to participate directly in the elections. With SMS, people can use creative ideas to vent their frustrations on current issues. People receive messages and they forward them to friends, colleagues and relatives. It is like people’s power: the Malays, Indians and Chinese are all doing the same thing. Of course, telco companies have the last laugh. > Esther Tan, former NTV7 managing editor and journalist SMS is extremely popular among the younger generation. Its influence is such that those who were previously apolitical are suddenly talking about politics and the state the country is in. It is grossly unfair to dismiss SMS that is not to one’s favour as nonsense. In fact, observers have put the accuracy of information via SMS to as high as 80%. Some of them have their contacts to provide them with information on a wide range of issues, from policies, corruption to up-to-date happenings around the country. And the fact that they could not get access to the mainstream media also drove them to disseminate information via SMS, for instance. > Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, Wanita MCA deputy chief Barisan Nasional was too conservative and underestimated the power of SMS and the Internet. Our traditional role as the ruling party is to tell the voters what we have done. This is the preaching style of campaigning and it is not interesting and perhaps boring altogether. The impact of SMS is great when you get people to forward the messages and thus multiply the number of recipients. This can be very influential. > Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin, Umno leader and former information minister I do not believe SMS and blogs had a huge impact on the recently-concluded general election. It (outcome of the general election) could be more of a protest the people had in mind – to vent their anger on the government. It is a fact that there are more people owning a mobile phone than a computer. It is common for the village folk to receive SMS nowadays but again some may not know how to retrieve them. > Datuk S. Veerasingam, MIC vice-president The trend whereby SMS messages are circulating without having their authenticity verified is unhealthy in a multi-racial country. People who read and forward SMS messages do not bother to check whether the contents are true or not. Those who send out messages should be responsible for the contents. There should also be a way to track them. There are so many police reports made against SMS but nothing could be done. The current system that requires prepaid card users to register themselves also does not help in tracing the identity of the sender. MIC did try to trace the source of some of the messages. The phone number belonged to a company but its owner denied sending the messages. |
clarestalwj |
Latest page update: made by clarestalwj
, Mar 22 2010, 10:37 PM EDT
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Keyword tags:
bloggers
blogs the new media
government
government and traditional med
internet age
malaysia election 2008
malaysia web2.0
mobile phones
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political
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politics blogs
regulations on blogs
sms
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traditional media
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