by msweeks
Sydney-based IBSG Director, heading up the IBSG public sector team in Asia Pacific for Cisco. Co-author of the Connected Republic 2.0 More about msweeks
Perils of modernity
I know it’s dangerous to get too misty-eyed about the corrosive and liberating potential of the blogosphere, but stories like this can’t help make you feel a little more optimistic. Maybe I’m just kidding myself…but for the moment, I’m going to take this as another important straw in the wind that tells us something good about the renovation of the democratic conversation.
Here is how the Economist told the story:
The government's cyber-enthusiasm comes back to haunt it
ON MARCH 8th Malaysia's electoral upset unfolded at glacial pace on government-owned television channels. As the approved pundits stumbled to grasp the stunning implications, some 500,000 Malaysians lost patience, and turned to Malaysiakini, an independent online newspaper, with 35 staff. It was faster and did not fight shy of trumpeting the opposition's excellent showing.
Even before election night, the internet had already played a big part in the vote. Malaysia has an unusual combination of high internet penetration and pliant mainstream media. It is therefore fertile ground for cyber-politics. According to the government's multimedia regulator, 3.9m of the country's 28m people have dial-up internet subscriptions and 1.2m broadband. Some 60% of the population, it reckons, use the internet. Even if that is an overestimate, the limitations of the mainstream media are enough to drive politics online.
Television hardly ever covers opposition rallies and speeches. But the online world is delightfully free. Anxious to make Malaysia a high-tech cyber-hub, the county's former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, exempted websites from the annual licensing requirements that help keep print publications deferential. The 1998 Communications and Multimedia Act decreed that there would be no censorship of the internet.
That does not, of course, make it a free-for-all. Strict laws—on defamation, for example—still apply. But the air of the blogosphere is refreshing after the stultifying fug of Malaysia's mainstream press. Jeff Ooi (www.jeffooi.com) and Tony Pua (tonypua.blogspot.com) were among several successful opposition candidates to have made their names as bloggers. Mr Pua thinks all parties underestimated the effects of “secondary access” to the internet, as news broken on the web—of opposition rallies, for example—was disseminated by word-of-mouth and mobile-phone text messages.
Most worrying for the government and the mainstream media, Malaysia is young. A new generation sees the internet as its primary news source. Founded in 1999 as a free site, Malaysiakini was forced to start charging in 2002, but was free for the election. In normal times, it has just 10,000 subscribers. But the election has been a great advertisement for it, as well as for democracy.
Comments
Martin Stewart Weeks said: This is what my friend and Cisco colleague James Yong remarked in his brief response to my comments on this article (James is a Malaysian who has lived in Singapore for a long time and the author of one of the best books on eGovernment in Asia):
James' response:
"I tend to agree with Martin's view. As a Malaysian (even though I haven't lived in Malaysia for some time) I remain very interested in the politics. I followed the campaigning process through Malaysiakini and other blog sites (another good one is Malaysia Today www.malaysia-today.net ) . What appeared in the newspapers and TV paled in comparison with what one could see on these sites, especially videoclips of fiery speeches by opposition leaders like Anwar Ibrahim (the former DPM who was jailed by former PM Dr Mahathir), no holds barred articles criticising the activities of various parties & politicians, and tons of citizen feedback. I think we all knew before polling day that the National Front's decline was going to be quite significant.
On polling night itself, like a huge number of Malaysians, I stayed up very late, switching my attention between TV and the Malaysiakini website. It was soon clear that the official TV channels were slow in announcing results. In fact after a while, even the TV journalists started referring to Malaysiakini instead of waiting for the polling station officials to declare the final results. The Malaysiakini site went down around 2am through overwhelming traffic, but by then the overall trend was clear with several states falling to the opposition. The usually graphics-heavy site was quickly replaced by a more spartan version (no graphics) for the next few days, so that Netizens could continue to follow the happenings.
The blogosphere and I guess web 2.0 in general is going to have a huge impact on governments, whether they like it or not. Governments in these part of the world, who are used to traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers) they can easily control, have found themselves struggling with this new channel of information distribution & the online community that quickly develops around it."
posted over 3 years ago
Martin Stewart-Weeks said: It gets more interesting...this piece suggests that the blogosphere has infiltrated the heart of the democratic process (the parliament), which should make for some interesting times ahead in Malaysian politics:
Here's a short report from the India press:
"Malaysia’s political landscape was hit hard from cyberspace last week when a blogger entered Parliament after winning in elections that saw the ruling coalition lose its two-thirds majority in the House.
In a country where the mainstream media largely supported the government, Jeff Ooi — a former advertising copywriter — used his political blog to win a seat on an Opposition ticket. He was not the only blogger in the fray.
Elizabeth Wong, a social activist and blogger, won a state assembly election. Badrul Hisham Shahrin, who ran for Parliament, lost to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s son-in-law after four recounts. He was contesting from a rural area where not many could read his blogs.
The southeast Asian country is still reeling under the latest political shock, after the Internet played a key role in shaping political thought and generated an anti-government wave days before millions set out to vote.
Technology destroyed the powerful hold that Abdullah’s Barisan Nasional had over Malaysia, where sex scandals and videos of ministers frolicking with their girlfriends have been posted on YouTube, much to their embarrassment.
Technology is becoming a huge part of campaigns. In the Philippines, SMS bursts can bring tens of thousands of people to the streets. And the Malaysian elections show that in countries where the media are controlled, people and the Opposition now have an alternative where they can campaign, discuss and collect money for their cause. In several countries across Asia, the Internet has politically empowered people, a phenomenon that is only going to spread as the cyberspace expands.
So when Ooi (www.jeffooi.com) went on his walkabouts while campaigning, all he heard was a call for change. He told an online magazine that eye contact with potential voters helped online donations for his campaign. On her blog (elizabethwong.wordpress.com), Wong spoke of a new dawn in her state, Selangor. “We need your help and inputs. We need honest, committed residents to fill in the blanks and vacancies… We have to deliver,” she wrote
after winning the assembly seat."
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=e442c315-9d16-4ace-a2d5-88e4c15580b4&ParentID=47a649c1-e85b-49f7-a5ac-1e23fee7e204&&Headline
posted over 3 years ago
Martin Stewart-Weeks said: And just to tail off the whole story, talk about 'from the horses mouth'! Here, in a short piece from AFP, Malaysian PM Badawi provides possible the most powerful possible endorsement of the power of the revolution that almost cost him government...
Thanks to my colleague James Yong for drawing this to my attention...
"Agence France-Presse
Posted date: March 25, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR--Malaysia's premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Tuesday his "biggest mistake" in disastrous elections was to ignore cyber-campaigning on the Internet which was seized by the opposition.
The powerful Barisan Nasional coalition suffered its worst-ever results in March 8 polls that left five states and a third of parliamentary seats in opposition hands.
The opposition, which was largely ignored by government-linked mainstream media, instead waged an enormously successful online campaign using blogs, news websites and SMS text messages.
"We certainly lost the Internet war, the cyber-war," Abdullah said in in a speech to an investment conference.
"It was a serious misjudgement. We made the biggest mistake in thinking that it was not important," he said.
"We thought that the newspapers, the print media, the television was supposed to be important, but the young people were looking at SMS and blogs."
The comments are a major about-face for the government, which had vilified bloggers, calling them liars and threatening them with detention without trial under draconian internal security laws.
In line with promises to reform after the humiliating election results, Abdullah said the government would "respond effectively" and move to empower young Malaysians.
"It was painful ... but it came at the right time, not too late," he said.
Malaysia's mainstream media are mostly part-owned by parties in the ruling coalition, and what was seen as biased coverage in the run-up to last month's vote alienated voters and boosted demand for alternative news sources.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks Malaysia 124 out of 169 on its worldwide press freedom index. It says mainstream media are "often compelled to ignore or to play down" opposition events."
posted over 3 years ago