The 2008 General Elections proved how vital it is for political parties to move with the times and trends. The Opposition, in countering the media blackout and bias news from government-controlled mainstream media, made their presence felt through the use of alternative media in their promotional campaign.

Pakatan Rakyat’s use of the cyberspace was noticeable way before the polling began. Their e-campaign optimized the use of websites such as youtube, Facebook as well as web-logs, blogs, websites and even email as an effective tool to reach out to voters at work, home and elsewhere. It was a perfect weapon for the Pakatan Rakyat as the internet is a straightforward way for them to disseminate its message, ideology, manifesto and missions to targeted audience regardless of time and space. And all this sans censorship.

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Many politicians today has use the alternative media to get closer to the people.

The government, of course, had picked up on the capabilities of new media and responded by fighting fire with fire. Below is an indication of who’s winning the ongoing war for presence in cyberspace.

The Most Popular Twitter and Facebook Pages of Politicians and their Number of Fans

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Datuk Seri Najib has the most followers in the social network sites.

The major role new media played in PR’s victory in the 12th General Election is obvious. According to a study by new media department lecturer of Universiti Malaya Dr Abu Hassan Hasbullahin, as he predicted  some states were  won over by PR due to the influence of the new media especially to the young voters. From his findings, he forecasted that “70 percent of the election result will be determined by the new media, especially by the blogs.”

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Mukhriz also has Facebook and Twitter.

The study also stated that PR has started to use the new media since year 1998 with 40 bloggers, and in year 2004, there were 7,500 bloggers that are pro-PR. While for BN, in 2004, they only have two websites and one blog. Abu Hassan also said that the study, which involved 1,500 respondents from each state, never received any attention from BN, but PR was always fervent in updating themselves with details of the findings.

Not only were the Opposition, in particular, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), aggressive with their cyber campaign even before the last General Election, they’ve also  unofficially trained bloggers to become politicians. We had seen quite a number of bloggers who were made to become candidates for PKR during the last election and these new-age political writers even succeeded in winning parliamentary seats. Among these bloggers-turned-politicians are Jelutong Member of Parliament Jeff Ooi, Bukit Lanjan States Assembly Representative Elizabeth Wong and Petaling Jaya Selatan Member of Parliament Lee Loy Sian PKR.   

With censorship in mainstream media by the government, the use of new media had become more significant for PR to continue their political fight. Currently there are several news web portals and tons of blogs which carried out the ideology and ideas by the PR. Currently, many MPs and State Representatives have their own blogs and profiles in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The number of followers in these politicians on Facebook and Twitter pages is quite reliable indication for gauging how popular (or unpopular) they are among voters. Aside from this, net users would also know the type of people (i.e. other politicians and personalities) who support them from the list of fans they have on Facebook and Twitter pages.

Comparison:Cyber Presence BN and PR

Barisan Nasional

Pakatan Rakyat

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