Tweets show Bersih has lots of apolitical support
By Tarani Palani, FMT
PETALING JAYA: Some may complain that politicians have hijacked Bersih’s agenda, but Twitter activity indicates that the movement has plenty of support from those Malaysians who normally do not show interest in politics.
According to preliminary statistics, tweets promoting Bersih’s July 9 rally were plentiful even before the issue heated up with the slew of arrests aimed at derailing the programme.
Politweet, a research organization that studies Twitter interactions between ordinary citizens and politicians, says Malaysian users are generally not politically inclined but are fired up by Bersih.
“Bersih has an appeal to even non-political people,” Politweet founder Ahmed Kamal Nava told FMT.
“Users who had never tweeted about a YB before were bothering to tweet about Bersih. On a daily basis, the heaviest promoters of Bersih were people not politically affiliated.
“Even in the run-up to July 9, Pakatan politicians were not heavily promoting Bersih, except Elizabeth Wong. It was only after the arrests started that politicians began to actively promote Bersih on Twitter.”
Politweet has been tracking Malaysian Twitter user behaviour since 2009 and has traced trends on by-elections, the Sarawak state election, the 1Malaysia project and other political developments.
Ahmed also said that the number of RTs (retweets) on Bersih surpassed the average by “a large margin”.
According to him, a tweet may be re-tweeted 50 times on average. However, preliminary statistics reveal that #bersih retweets are dramatically more frequent.
The most retweeted message is to encourage people to add the Bersih badge to their tweeter profile pictures. “Support Bersih: add a #PicBage to your image” has been retweeted at least 679 times in recent weeks.
Other messages extensively re-tweeted were reactions to police action before and during the rally.
One message that was retweeted 283 times was “RT @xandriaooi: Dear polis, I don’t think the folks rallying are out to cause trouble. If they wanted 2 fight, they won’t set a date & tell u abt it. #bersih.”
Other favourites include “RT @radins: #bersih mass arrests by police at KLSentral. Commuters within profile of Bersih supporters picked up upon alighting from trains. Pls RT” and “RT @NatAsasi: If one baby from Tung Shin hospital is harmed, #NajibResign IMMEDIATELY! #bersih.”
Ahmed acknowledged that it was difficult to gauge opinions for or against the rally, but added:
“I can say that a minority of tweets were negative.
