The BN doesn't 'get' the Internet

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I just want to copy this article from MalaysiaKini.Com here before it disappears into the archive, it has lots of introduction on Malaysia Political Blogs & websites, a good source of reference for Cyber Activists in Singapore.

...Continued


This is not to say that none of the BN's policies can be defended or that the opposition is free from criticism. But for a pro-BN blogger or even a BN MP to gain the same kind of cyberspace respect as Jeff Ooi or Rocky (right), he or she has to be free to criticise the BN as well as the opposition in equal measure.

The mentality of the BN follows the 'either you're for us or against us' philosophy. The party that does not allow its backbenchers to defy the whip would surely not allow one of its own to use his or her blog to criticise the BN in equal measure as the opposition.

Herein lies of one the realities of cyberspace which the BN has not yet grasped. The inherent anti-establishment bias in cyberspace means that a blogger can gain an audience and credibility by just attacking the BN.

After all, this was what Jeff Ooi was doing before he became an MP. But a pro-BN or BN MP cannot hope to gain the same level of respect or the same reach if he or she were to just repeat the party line in cyberspace.

Kit Siang, the Internet trailblazer

That cyberspace has an anti-BN bias is partly the BN's own making. The strict controls on mainstream media drove the public to alternative news sources online and for the more motivated, to create blogs as channels to vent their anti-BN views.

The same strict controls are also responsible for driving opposition MPs to the blogosphere and cyberspace. Perhaps no opposition politician has embraced cyberspace more than Lim Kit Siang. He wrote about IT issues as early as the mid 1990s.

He was one of the few politicians who uploaded his press releases on his own personal website. He was one of the key drivers in continuously upgrading DAP's website, publishing the press statements of its MPs and Aduns on its website and also encouraging its representatives to start blogs of their own.

One could say that Kit Siang was made for the Internet age despite his age. He is probably one of the few senior politicians who still does his own online research and is probably a voracious consumer of online news.

Kit Siang's blog (http://blog.limkitsiang.com/) is probably one of the most visited social political blogs in Malaysia as evidenced by the numerous comments he gets after every posting.

Anwar Ibrahim's website (http://www.anwaribrahim.com/) is much slicker and reminds me of a website of an aspiring US presidential candidate. It is more comprehensive than Kit Siang's blog in that it has sections where one can make financial contributions, request Anwar to speak at events and view his past speeches and op-eds.

He also has a blog (http://anwaribrahimblog.com/) which has his public schedule, YouTube videos, news items featuring Anwar as well as his press releases.

Even Dr Mahathir Mohamad (http://www.chedet.com/) joined the blogosphere when he found that the free access he had to the mainstream media when he was the PM was not so accessible after he left office. His blog has since reached the six-million-hits mark and he continues to lob verbal grenades against Pak Lah's administration.

In contrast, no BN senior leader can claim to have the same kind of Internet presence or traffic. It remains to be seen if Najib's recently launched website, (http://www.1malaysia.com.my/), will get the same kind of attention which Dr M's blog receives. Without fresh and honest content, it might prove to be a short-lived phenomenon.

But some BN politicians do 'get it'

It would not be fair to place all BN politicians in the same broad basket. Some of them have quickly jumped onto the blog bandwagon perhaps none more so than Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, the former Selangor menteri besar.

He was one of the first BN leaders to start his own blog after the disastrous election results in his own state (http://www.drkhir.com/). He finds himself in the unfamiliar territory of being the leader of the opposition. His blog has quickly found traction among those Umno supporters who are unhappy with Pak Lah's administration.

Perhaps the most hated person in the Malaysian blogosphere, Khairy Jamaluddin, also has his own website (http://www.rembau.net.my/) which was started just before the March general elections. It will take more than his own website to counter all the negative posts on him in the blogosphere but a recent blog entry criticising MCMC's decision to block access to RPK's website garnered quite a bit of publicity both online and offline.

But both of them were superseded by Shahrir Samad. Long known as one of the more outspoken leaders within Umno, Shahrir started blogging when he was in political 'exile'. His then office in Sri Hartamas was emblazoned with the sign 'Shahrir-Umno' and his 'experience' on the Internet probably explains why he currently runs four websites, two of which are regularly updated (http://www.shahrir-umno.com/main.php, http://www.ahliparlimenjb.com/, http://umnojb.com.my/umnojb2008/, http://shahrirsamad.blogspot.com/, http://shahrirsamad.blogspot.com/).

Not all of Umno's forays into the blogosphere have been successful. Ali Rustam is probably Umno's only blogging menteri besar (http://www.mohdalirustam.com/) but he quickly found that cyberspace can be a very unforgiving place when a post criticising the Selangor Pakatan government for allowing a pig farm project approved by the outgoing BN government to go on was quickly inundated with negative comments. He has since disabled comments from his blog, one of the surefire ways to decrease readership.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's foray into the blogosphere has also been uncertain. It is not clear that the one blog dedicated to Ku Li's activities (http://mykuli.blogspot.com/) is actually run by him. It comprises mostly of other blog posts about Ku Li and some news items covering his activities.

While it has received over 600,000 hits, there are very few comments following each post. Ku Li would generate much more traffic and attention to himself if he took a page out of Dr Mahathir's playbook by posting some entries actually written by himself instead of relying purely on secondary sources.

Be my Facebook friend

If external political competition does not galvanise BN politicians to have a web presence, perhaps internal political competition might. It is instructive to note that almost all the main contenders for the top positions in the upcoming MCA party elections have their own websites or blogs.

Ong Tee Keat (left), the front-runner for the position of the president of MCA, has the most comprehensive website (http://ongteekeat.net/) featuring news items, his manifesto and regular blog post in both Chinese and English.

The other possible contenders for the positions of president and deputy president also have their own websites including Ng Yen Yen (http://www.drngyenyen.com/), Liow Tiong Lai (http://www.liowtionglai.com/English/Main.aspx) and Fong Chan Onn (http://www.fongchanonn.com.my/). Indeed, Fong's comments about the injustice of the recent ISA arrests were picked up from his own blog.

It is unlikely that the BN politicians will be able to overcome the lead of many of the opposition politicians, at least in terms of eyeballs. A majority of BN MPs still do not have an online presence despite the low barriers to entry. After all, it doesn't take much effort to start a blog. The opposition MPs, because of their relative youth and because of their younger staff, are much more attuned to the newest developments in cyberspace.

Take social networking for example. Only three BN MPs in Peninsular Malaysia have Facebook accounts (Mukhriz Mahathir, Shabery Cheek and Khairy Jamaluddin) compared to 21 opposition MPs.

Three opposition MPs, Anwar Ibrahim, Nurul Izzah and Lim Kit Siang, top the list of MPs with the greatest number of Facebook friends - 5,000 and counting. In contrast, someone set up a fake Facebook account for Pak Lah and he currently has seven Facebook friends.

The online advantage on the part of the opposition does not guarantee them electoral success. There is no replacing the 'offline' activities that are part and parcel of what political parties and politicians need to do - the constituency servicing, the face-to-face meetings, the ceramahs, and so on. But the Internet has become such a key component of the political battleground that any party that ignores its importance is likely to find itself handicapped.

The BN establishment will not 'get' the Internet anytime soon. But it might have to learn fast if it finds itself in the unfamiliar position of being in the opposition at the federal level and denied automatic coverage in the mainstream media. After all, necessity is the mother of invention.

<hr size="2" width="100%">ONG KIAN MING is a PhD candidate in political science at Duke University.

Sammyboy.Com Thread posted by uncleyap at 9:03 PM

In a nutshell the key is CREDIBILITY whether in the real world or in cyberspace. Something which you Yap Keng Ho totally lack altogether

Porfirio Rubirosa said:

In a nutshell the key is CREDIBILITY whether in the real world or in cyberspace. Something which you Yap Keng Ho totally lack altogether

Click to expand...

You can repeat this argument a million times but will still not make any difference. Nothing change.

Not directed at you, but to the general forumers instead who can judge for themselves

uncleyap said:

You can repeat this argument a million times but will still not make any difference. Nothing change.

Click to expand...

Well, the BN should learn from PAP how to fix the internet peacefully without resorting to ISA:

http://wayangparty.wordpress.com/20...p-guide-to-dealing-with-troublesome-bloggers/

http://malaysiakini.com/news/90112

ISA don't work! Miss Kok not afraid, blogger also not afraid.

ISA mata could not even get a statement from blogger Syed Azidi Syed Abdul Aziz!


After two nights, blogger's out
Andrew Ong | Sep 20, 08 4:30pm

Blogger Syed Azidi Syed Abdul Aziz was released from police custody at 1pm today after being detained for two nights by the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID).
MCPX

Immediately after his release, he was interviewed by officials from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in the CCID headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

He walked out of the CCID headquarters at about 4pm and was received by his family members and friends.

Syed Azidi was being investigated for posting allegedly seditious material in his blog kickdefella involving a campaign to fly the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian flag) upside down.

No statements given

Speaking to reporters at a relative’s home in Kuala Lumpur later, Syed Azidi said he did not give any statements to the police throughout the duration of his detention.

kickdefella released syed azidi 200908 lawyer amrit pal singh (left) salahuddin ayub (right)“I told them that if they wanted a statement, they would have to charge me and I will give my statements in court in front of a judge,” he said.

Syed Azidi said that he was aware that the police was looking for him since Wednesday at his workplace in Kelantan.

“I tried to surrender myself to the Kelantan police immediate after finding out, but they replied that they were not looking for me,” he said.

On Thursday, a white Pajero passed his house four times before police officers disembarked and asked Syed Azidi to follow them to Kuala Lumpur.

Syed Azidi claimed he was unaware that he was being arrested at the time and only found out that he was officially being detained the following day at the Kota Baru Magistrate's Court where a remand order was sought.

‘Police treated me well’

He said that immediately after the police obtained the remand order, he was brought to Kuala Lumpur where he spent two nights at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters.

Syed Azidi also repeatedly commended the police for treating him well, adding that they obliged to his request for medicine, prayer mats and also soft drinks which were required because he had low blood sugar.

“They didn’t lock me up with other suspects. I was put in a cell by myself,” he said.

Syed Azidi believes that his detention was politically motivated.

“They were trying to scare other bloggers and dampen my spirits. It didn’t work,” he said.

On the MCMC investigations, Syed Azidi said that it was not related to the police investigations against him.

Kickdefella really kicked the matas arse:p

Porfirio Rubirosa said:

Not directed at you, but to the general forumers instead who can judge for themselves

Click to expand...

Yeah, agent provocateur Yap is desperately trying to grasp at straws.

BN gets more of the internet than the SDP with thier childish "thumbs up thumbs down" and "greying out anti SDP comments". They get more of the internet than your esteeemed Gopalan Nair, who thinks all PRCs are spies and agents of communism and Singapore is not an international city