Are we living in a bubble, Harapan?

Patrick Lim, NST

I am worried.

It has been in my mind for the past few years – are we living in a bubble that we created?

Have we been made to believe that we are popular by our own doing?

We must not forget that in the 13th General Election, 5.2 million votes went to BN, almost 50 percent of voters.

Which means among a group of friends who goes out for a meal, half of them voted for BN. The table in the cafe beside us enjoying the coffee and cakes now? Half of them voted for BN.

There are people out there who actually believe and still vote for BN, for whatever reason they have.

Now if you go back to where most of us “live”, which is the social media, it is a different tale.

Try putting up a positive post on the Government, like how things have changed from the past, how convenient it is to get your passport renewed at UTCs, or a general comment about positive reviews of our economy by international institutions.

Save for a handful of silent likes, the comments segment might read, “So what? The rakyat is still suffering!” or “Eh, you support Government? You took money from UMNO is it?”

No individual can objectively share their opinion or give credit where it is due online anymore.

Take GST, as another example. I am sure there are people among us who actually think GST is a fairer system, coupled with a reduction in income taxes. I have friends who do.

These are urban professionals, and there are many of them among us, which we don’t hear or read about their views on social media.

Why?

I have seen unknown individuals springing into immediate action to attack their credibility, hurl insults and used derogatory words like ‘BN dog’ or ‘macai’.

If you don’t believe me, try it yourself.

Even trying to give another side of the view on anti-Government posts on social media or WhatsApp groups usually end up being mocked.

I have tried correcting people that the post they just shared is fake news but I usually get “eh you work for Government now is it?”, “Wah, support BN already?”

I am worried that this psychological war, short of saying it is cyber-bullying, being played online to create the impression that BN no longer has any real support, will haunt and backfire on us badly.

We have silenced and muffled the voice of not just BN supporters but more importantly the fence sitters and we cannot gauge who are they, what are their views on certain topics, do they support BN or not, and if they do, why?

All these could actually affect how we campaign, what do we talk about, and who do we talk to.

Remember Teluk Intan by-election in 2014 and the Sarawak State elections in 2016? We thought we could win judging from the sentiments online. We campaigned on topics like cost of living and GST there but these didn’t resonate with the people. We lost badly.

We have unknowingly created a climate of fear where people are increasingly becoming afraid to share different views than what is being propagated online.

Things are made worse when social media platforms like Facebook, push out content according to what Facebook thinks we want to see.

If we have been liking and reading only K-Pop related content for example, we continuously read and ‘live in that world’. If we have been reading and liking Opposition related materials only, then we are continuously fed with them and we ‘live in that world’.

These signs are actually worrying. It is artificial to a certain extent. We made ourselves believe that we are on the right track, that we are popular.

We are living in a bubble that we created, not knowing the existence of a stronger but eerily silent voice that are out there that are about to haunt us in this elections, Harapan.