Malaysian online politics
This is a good background article on what is happening in Malaysia, with the continued political battle, In Malaysian Politics, Fighting Dirty Is the Norm. It basically shows that in Malaysia, “politics is about individuals rather than parties” and as a result, the frontal character attacks are the norm. So its little wonder then that the internet & blogs played a central role in their latest election.
Big enough that PM Badawi credits it with the “biggest mistake” of their campaign:
“It was a serious misjudgement. We made the biggest mistake in thinking that it was not important. 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”
He said the “Internet readiness” of the Malay, English and Mandarin languages also allowed the opposition to reach out to their audience and get more votes.
He said that while Singapore has several laws on proper Internet use, Malaysia does not have a similar law. “Of course, anything that is done in the Internet is not above the existing laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA), Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Official Secrets Act and Sedition Act,” he said.
He said what is interesting in Malaysia is that mainstream media are almost entirely controlled by the majority while the alternative and new media are being used widely by the opposition.
As for an update, post that March election, the attacks and counter-attacks using the internet have increased, with sex-charges and murder-charges being bandied about by the candidates and their supporters. The Anwar case has Secretary Rice involved, saying “The United States has long spoken and will continue to speak up about cases that we think need to be thought about in terms of the political circumstances,” while in Malaysia today for a conference. The HRC has also chimed in about Anwar, who states he is ready to contest a by-election. The Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said that he “explained to Rice that investigations against Anwar over sodomy allegations were not politically motivated whatsoever.” This seems like a pretty big rift between Rice and the Malaysian Gov’t, probably at least due to the fact that Anwar Ibrahim has friends “including former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and ex-World Bank President James Wolfensohn.”
