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Malaysian PM Abdullah admits underestimating Internet; now faces poison-pen campaign

Nazry Bahrawi
nazry@mediacorp.com.sg

Ignored by government-linked mainstream media, Malaysia’s opposition waged an aggressive online election campaign using blogs and news websites.

For example, 67-year-old opposition Democratic Action Party chairman Lim Kit Siang ran three blogs, which were meticulously updated with multiple posts every day. Like many other opposition leaders, he was able to reach out to young urban and educated people, many who were voting for the first time. Mr Lim won a parliamentary seat in Ipoh Timor.

Yesterday, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose position has been considerably weakened after his coalition’s drubbing at the polls, admitted that his ruling coalition made a blunder by underestimating the power of the Internet.

“We made the biggest mistake in thinking that it was not important,” he said. The coalition suffered its worst results ever in March 8 polls that left five states and a third of parliamentary seats in opposition hands. (Now what? Bloggers are important eh? Are you going to order Nazri to make a public apology to bloggers?)

“We certainly lost the Internet war, the cyber war,” Mr Abdullah said in a speech to an investment conference. “It was a serious misjudgement. We thought that the newspapers, the print media and the television were supposed to be important, but the young people were looking at SMSes and blogs.” (You are wrong. Not only you lost the Internet war, you also lost our trust. The mainstream media were in fact supposed to be important if, but only if, mainstream media were not biased toward emphasizing on how good BN is doing when BN is actually not. Haven’t you realized we rakyat feel so sick of the mainstream media already?)

His comments constitute a major about-face for the government, which had vilified bloggers, calling them liars and threatening them with detention without trial under draconian internal security laws. (Now you regret huh?)

Even as he spoke, his critics in the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), his power base, were moving to force him out of office. To make matters worse, Umno’s 3.2 million members have also received a poison-pen letter listing his faults. It is not known if he was aware of these moves when he was making his speech.

The poison-pen letter, which hopes to ignite hatred against Mr Abdullah, talks about the manipulations of the government by his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin and his associates, the PM’s alleged willingness to appease Singapore and his inability to fight rising crime in the country.

But in his speech, Mr Abdullah said that in line with reform promises after the humiliating election results, the government would “respond effectively” and move to empower young Malaysians. “It was painful … but it came at the right time, not too late,” he said. The PM admitted that it was also his inability to push through reforms that earned voters’ ire. (Now only you admit your inability, thank you. I truly thank you for being a sleepwalking PM, otherwise we would not have five non BN-led state government now.)

The government, he said, had been given one last chance to prove itself and is ready to change to address the people’s concerns. He promised to implement bold agendas to restore public and investor confidence. “Malaysians have sent us a strong message — either we make it or we will fall. It’s not my intention to allow the party to fall while I am still in charge; we have to work hard; mistakes must be rectified.” (Mistakes must be rectified, correct correct correct, please abolish the infamous ISA and release HINDRAF 5 and all other ISA detainees.)

The impact of young voters on the electoral results was particularly underscored in Selangor, which fell to the opposition. The state has about 143,000 new voters out of a total electorate of more than 1.5 million.

“The Internet definitely played a role in getting young people to vote,” said 25-year-old Michelle Gunaselan, a founding member of online electoral education group VotED. “A day after the election results, we received lots of messages on VotED from young people, who are now generally more hopeful about their political future.”

But blogger Jeff Ooi, 52 — who won as a DAP candidate in Penang, one of five states that fell to the opposition — said Web users are not limited by age. “We attract many citizens above 45 years old and these are the people who are more interested in politics and the oppositions’ viewpoint.”

Mr Ibrahim Suffian, director of opinion research firm Merdeka Centre, pins part of the blame on the nation’s mainstream media, which churned out biased coverage and also masked the administration’s flaws.

More factual reporting was provided, for instance, by online journal Malaysiakini, which gets about 100,000 hits daily, but it does not enjoy good relations with the authorities.

But things may improve with the government’s apparent change of heart. New Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said he hopes to meet bloggers soon as they are key to the bridge he wants to build between the government and the people.

Still, will the mainstream media shed its perceived one-sided reporting style? Mr Ibrahim said they need to regain its credibility as an honest broker of information.

“Some newspapers are now reporting not only about the opposition but also pushing issues to the fore,” he said.

They are racing against time to regain public confidence and preserve economic viability. For the PM, it’s a race for political survival as well.

Source: TODAYonline

Sigh… Pak Lah obviously still does not realize what’s the REAL biggest mistake he has made. Let me tell you Pak Lah, not knowing the REAL mistake is your biggest mistake.