Democracy 2.0 in Malaysia

Like I mentioned before in one of my previous posts, American President Barack Obama utilized new media tools such as YouTube and Facebook to boost his ultimately successful presidential campaign last year. America was not the only country to be hit by what Tapscott (2008) terms as Democracy 2.0, a new political generation powered by internet-savvy individuals; the Malaysian political landscape changed dramatically during last March's General Elections due to the ground-breaking impact of new media tools such as text messaging and the alternative media (Low 2008).

Tarrant (2008) attributed the Opposition's stunning success during the Elections to the mainstream media's support for the ruling party Barisan Nasional and lack of coverage on the Opposition parties. Disillusioned readers fled to cyberspace to find solace in alternative media, with the most popular website being Raja Petra Kamarudin's political blog, in the hopes of getting a more holistic view of the political scene.

Perhaps the greatest example of how blogs played a pertinent role in the past election was the fact that Jeff Ooi, famous for his blog 'Screenshots', won a seat in Penang for the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP). Blogs allowed politicians and potential candidates to engage and connect with the public or potential voters; this level of interactivity between the people in power and the rest of the public was unprecedented, and it was a new form of politics.

The public were yearning for a different perspective to the mainstream media, and the alternative media duly delivered on the internet. The public were tired of a lack of transparency among politicians, and the Opposition duly delivered with what Sullivan (2008) as a new brand of liberalism which is 'not a top-down, managerial variety; it’s more in line with progressive traditions of self-empowerment.' The Opposition and the alternative media were sensitive towards the audience, the context, and the purpose, choosing the internet and mobile phones, two popular technological elements in Malaysia, to wage war against the people in power (Putnis & Petelin 1996).

New media has made politics into a more interactive entity with a personal touch, and Web 2.0 and new media features have allowed political campaigns to reach a larger and wider audience. Democracy 2.0 is here to stay, and we the people are behind that change.


References:

Low, B 2008, Malaysia's digital revolution--the death knell for The Star, and the rise of the e-news portal?, CNet Asia, viewed 10 June 2009, http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/teteatech/post.htm?id=63002611.

Putnis, P, & Petelin, R 1996, Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Tarrant, B 2008, Malaysian opposition win shows power of cyberspace, Reuters Canada, http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCAKLR6139420080309?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0.

Tapscott, D 2008, ‘The net generation and democracy: Obama, social networks, and citizen engagement' in Grown up digital, McGraw-Hill, US, pp. 243 – 268.

Sullivan, A 2008, Obama is master of Facebook politics, viewed 27 May 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article3997523.ece.