Did blogging matter in the Malaysian General Elections?

Saturday's General Elections in Malaysia had voters swing heavily to the opposition. I had expected the opposition to win more seats than in 2004, but the size of the wins (some call "tsunami") went beyond my expectation, and from what I read beyond the opposition's expectation, let alone the ruling coalition's. See "BN Retains Power With Reduced Majority, Loses Four More States."

I had seen the news and commentaries on the Internet about views on the state of the nation which were not in the mainstream media. I had not thought that the alternative media would have much impact on the General Elections, especially because some of the alternative views were extreme and polarized. At least I thought the impact would be greater in future General Elections when access to the Internet would be more widespread than the mostly urban access now. I was right and wrong. I now think that technology (especially Internet blogging, YouTube and SMS) did contribute significantly this time already!

Of course, information dissemination and election campaigning using other means, and a host of other factors have played their parts in the result of the elections (for example the world view of Kelantan people is unique, so they keep the ruling PAS party for reasons that are different from other states).

Kuala Lumpur had 10 out of 11 federal parliament seats swung to the opposition. Penang had 11 out of 13 parliamentary seats to opposition and 29 out of 40 state seats (creating more than 2/3 majority to form a new state government). The Internet must have had an impact in KL and Penang! Also the major towns and cities in Selangor state, for example Petaling Jaya (Selangor, too, will have a new state government after the opposition won 36/56 seats).

I cannot conclude that the Internet played the major factor, but the Internet did reveal a few sensational issues, as in the report by Reuters entitled "Malaysia opposition win shows power of cyberspace", giving examples of 2 bloggers who actually won elections seats.

These major urban areas did matter in the final tally that combines with rural areas, to deny the ruling National Front coalition 2/3 majority at federal level and to have the opposition gain the states of Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor, in addition to Kelantan.

The trend of technology, especially Internet blogging having impact on the Malaysian scene cannot be underestimated.

Comments

[Wu MingShi]

I agree that while internet in general (blogging in particular) did influence the electorate, I do not think it is a main factor.

However, unlike past elections, especially those pre-2004, our eyes and ears are no longer constrain to main media outlets such as RTM/TV3/Astro, which by their organization structure, very susceptible to manipulation.

The sad truth is, people probably believe bloggers' account of the events more than that of main stream media.

[Yuen-Chi Lian]

I agree that the Internet contributed to the tsunami, and IS one of the main factors.

Even my 50 y/o mother was reading forwarded mails from people of her age group. And don't forget the side effect of it, we shared the news to those who did not read from the www.

In other countries, the parties acknowledge the impact of Internet and use it as a weapon. Obama is one of them. But our government had completely denied it and hurled insults on the bloggers and Internet media. Didn't they know there're a lot of Internet users now in Malaysia? :-)

- yc

[lyme]

I think blog has given a big impact on the recent PRU result. As mainstream media is controlled by government, online sources like blog and websites are the alternative choices for people who want to know the 'real world'.
I hope mainstream media can be more open after this 'tsunami'.