After 60 years ruling the country, Malaysia’s ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) was unexpectedly defeated by the opposing coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH). Although BN’s image has been critically tarnished by corruption scandals, their defeat seems unlikely as the election was heavily favoured towards them. For instance, rural areas were given significant weight which favoured BN (The Conversation 2018), the opposition leader Tun Mahathir Mohamad’s face was also torn down from billboards (The Straight Times 2018). Besides, BN has a tight grip on the printing press, newspapers such as Utusan and The Star were connected to parties in the BN coalition (Studies.aljazeera.net 2019). Most of the free-to-air channels such as RTM1, TV3 and NTV7 were also under BN ownership (Mohd Azizuddin 2014). Opposition leaders were repressed and arrested by the abusive usage of the law while media outlets critical of the government were at risks of getting their licences revoked (Studies.aljazeera.net 2019). Considering all the factors, PH’s chances of victory looked slim. What tipped the scale?
Social media has been used as an alternative media for Malaysia’s opposition parties since the days of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi (Mohd Azizuddin 2014). There were blogs criticising the Badawi government, the government threatened to take action but ultimately failed. The first Bersih rally which was conducted in 2007, a direct result of harnessing social media to spread awareness on the country’s political climate (Tye et al. 2018). In 2008, BN lost their two third’s majority in parliament for the first time since 1969. The 2008 election outcome was credited to social media’s strong influence as Malaysians are increasingly using the internet for news (Mohd Azizuddin 2014). This was evident to Malaysians during that time that social media could be used to fire up a movement that would reach a wider audience (Jericho 2012).
Fast forward to 2013, the number of political movements organised on social media significantly increased during the 13th Malaysian General Election. Approximately 100,000 Malaysians took the streets during the Black505 rally immediately after GE 13, protesting fraud and money politics that was allegedly involved in GE 13 (Lim 2017). Expressions such as Ubah (Change), Ini Kali Lah! (This is it!) and Reformasi (Reformation) was articulated on social media and were used as slogans during rallies. Netizens also change the colour of their profile pictures to show support to different causes such as Bersih (yellow), Black505 (black), Anti-Lynas (green) and Save Felda (orange) (Lim 2017). It has become clear to Malaysian politicians that social media is an impactful medium for political communication (Lee 2017).
Entering the 14th General Election in 2018, BN has been declining in legitimacy due to their corruption scandals. Public awareness of these issues has been snowballing due to the role of social media as a propaganda medium (Studies.aljazeera.net 2019). Opposition leaders also have a stronger and more established social media presence compared to BN leaders. In addition, they were very vocal in criticising Najib and the 1MDB scandal, this accompanied by their strong social media presence compared to politicians from BN dealt a huge blow to BN’s public opinion. As a result, BN ultimately lost favour among the people and PH was given the mandate to rule the country.
I believe social media is not the sole determinant of GE 14’s outcome; however, it surely proved that social media could be a medium that parallels or even overpowers traditional media (Mohd Azizuddin 2014). Thus, in the current political context, politicians must better establish themselves not only in the real world but also in social media so that they may gain a winning chance.
Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani 2014, "THE SOCIAL MEDIA ELECTION IN MALAYSIA: THE 13TH GENERAL ELECTION IN 2013", Kajian Malaysia, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 123.
Jericho, G. (2012). The rise of the fifth estate. Melbourne: Scribe.
Lim, J. (2017). Engendering civil resistance: Social media and mob tactics in Malaysia. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(2), pp.209-227.
Lee, C. (2017). Facebooking to Power: The Social Media Presence of Malaysian Politicians. ISEAS Perspective. 2017. 1-11.
The Straits Times. (2019). Malaysia election: Cutting out Mahathir's face from billboard was not right, says Hishammuddin. [online] Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-election-cutting-out-mahthirs-face-from-billboard-was-not-right-says [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].
