Pakatanâ€™s non-existent New Media strategy

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Sep 6, 2009

By Oon Yeoh

In the aftermath of the March 8, 2008 election, many articles were written about how the opposition managed to make ful use of New Media (the Internet, SMS and VCDs) and how the government simply had no clue.

While it’s true that the Pakatan parties benefitted tremendously from New Media activities around that time, not much of it can be attributed to the efforts of those parties.

Yes, blogs helped the opposition get its message across but many of the bloggers were not originally party members nor were they doing it for the party. People like Jeff Ooi, Tony Pua and Elizabeth Wong were bloggers long before they became opposition politicians. They just happened to be bloggers who supported the opposition.

The opposition parties can be credited for bringing them into the opposition but they can’t take credit for their effective use of blogs.

Similarly, the various online news sites like Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and MalaysiaVotes (later changed to The Nut Graph) all carried alternative news that the mainstream media wouldn’t carry, such as opposition activities and press statements.

This helped to spread Pakatan’s message but the opposition can’t take credit for the emergence or success of such sites. At most the opposition can be credited for being generally supportive of these sites.

If you look at the opposition’s use of the Internet during the March 8, 2008 campaign period, it was quite pathetic. It was hard even to figure out which ceramah was being held where. There was no central hub where you can get reliable information on ceramahs.

Fast forward to September 2009. About a year and a half later, have things improved on the New Media front?

Yes, but not for the opposition. Najib’s 1Malaysia website might not exactly be the epitome of what a good political website should be but it’s friendlier and more comprehensive than anything the opposition leaders have to offer.

Anwar Ibrahim has an official homepage that seems comprehensive enough but it’s boring as heck. It certainly doesn’t show him to be web-savvy. Very Web 1.0 despite the presence of links to MySpace, Facebook and Friendster. It’s just so very static.

Hadi Awang’s official homepage looks to be a blog although it has links to other features. It’s all in BM and hardly appealing to anyone other than those who already support him.

No doubt, some individual leaders are web-savvy, most notably Lim Kit Siang, who has a vibrant blog and a popular Twitter feed. But he’s an exception rather than the rule. And he doesn’t seem to have a comprehensive official homepage. It’s more like a placeholder for his blog.

As for the coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, I can’t seem to find an official homepage. There are a couple of blogs. Here and here. Are they official? No idea. Are they good? No.