Information battle gathers pace
By Himanshu Bhatt, The Sun
INFORMATION is power. And the party that wields it best enjoys an upper hand in asserting its influence. It is no wonder then that for the last few decades there has been a recurrent complaint from the Opposition that it has been denied its due or balanced coverage in the mainstream media.
The balance, however, did shift somewhat in the 90s, during the advent of the new media, especially the Internet, which effectively allowed Opposition parties and many NGOs to transmit their views on a scale not felt before. In particular, during the months leading to the election of March 2008, there was significant use of platforms such as text messaging, blogs, emails and online news sites for alternative voices and views to be heard in a widespread manner.
But despite the gains that have been made, the new media has not been able to effectively reach rural residents and those not in tune with the likes of the Internet. So the traditional print media is often thought as still the most potent medium in terms of scale, for reaching out to the masses at large.
It therefore became quite interesting when the Opposition assumed government in some states after the elections. Now, as we near the third year after that fateful political “tsunami”, there has been an intriguing twist in this war of information.
Even as it laments that certain mainstream media agencies are skewed against it, the Pakatan Rakyat administration in Penang has been able to use government machinery to reach out and make its voice heard by the grassroots, in a way the national Opposition has never been able to do.
For example, elderly citizens who registered under the state government’s Senior Citizens Appreciation Programme have found mail from the state government in their postal boxes, complete with a letter from the chief minister detailing the “people-friendly” policies that the administration has undertaken since March 2008.
For many, it was an eye-opener; here they were reading political news and perspectives of such insight and depth that they had never been made aware of through the mainstream media they were so attuned to.
The state has also had its official newsletter Suara CAT, replete with colourful photographs, distributed on a wide scale among the grassroots, particularly in rural areas. Sitting in coffee shops or in their homes, thousands of farmers and plantation workers, retirees and housewives, petty traders and hawkers, are now viewing images and messages in a way they have never been exposed to before.
And next month, a new bulletin is expected to hit the streets with news of the state government’s projects and achievements, together with news of local industries, highlighted in four languages – Malay, Chinese, English and Tamil.
The Pakatan government in Selangor has also been working overtime circulating its own publication even as it operates a popular state TV channel through a website. All this while party organs like PAS’s Harakah, PKR’s Suara Keadilan and DAP’s The Rocket continue to be circulated, albeit on a limited scale. There had even been talk about the Pakatan states joining together to form a single official newspaper to be distributed in the states but the plan never materialised.
One can understand the Barisan Nasional (BN) sitting up and being concerned about this matter. After all, information is power. And here was the national Opposition making inroads by having its views heard in remote corners that had never been exposed to such news.
One Pakatan member has even reported being assaulted for distributing the Suara CAT in a rural area in Seberang Perai.
And the race to disseminate one’s political voice is bound to heat up and become even more intriguing, as the next general election looms before us.
It is now a battle of information, a do-or-die chase to win the hearts and minds of millions of voters.This time the playing field has become a lot more even.
