Pakatan’s non-existent New Media strategy
| Pakatan’s non-existent New Media strategy Posted on Tuesday, September 08 @ 05:04:59 PDT by KetamBatu |
Oleh mixmaster.it
In the aftermath of the March 8, 2008 election, many articles were written about how the opposition managed to make ful use of New Media (the Internet, SMS and VCDs) and how the government simply had no clue.
While it’s true that the Pakatan parties benefitted tremendously from New Media activities around that time, not much of it can be attributed to the efforts of those parties.
Yes, blogs helped the opposition get its message across but many of the bloggers were not originally party members nor were they doing it for the party. People like Jeff Ooi, Tony Pua and Elizabeth Wong were bloggers long before they became opposition politicians. They just happened to be bloggers who supported the opposition.
The opposition parties can be credited for bringing them into the opposition but they can’t take credit for their effective use of blogs.
Similarly, the various online news sites like Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and MalaysiaVotes (later changed to The Nut Graph) all carried alternative news that the mainstream media wouldn’t carry, such as opposition activities and press statements.
This helped to spread Pakatan’s message but the opposition can’t take credit for the emergence or success of such sites. At most the opposition can be credited for being generally supportive of these sites.
If you look at the opposition’s use of the Internet during the March 8, 2008 campaign period, it was quite pathetic. It was hard even to figure out which ceramah was being held where. There was no central hub where you can get reliable information on ceramahs.
Fast forward to September 2009. About a year and a half later, have things improved on the New Media front?
Yes, but not for the opposition. Najib’s 1Malaysia website might not exactly be the epitome of what a good political website should be but it’s friendlier and more comprehensive than anything the opposition leaders have to offer.
Anwar Ibrahim has an official homepage that seems comprehensive enough but it’s boring as heck. It certainly doesn’t show him to be web-savvy. Very Web 1.0 despite the presence of links to MySpace, Facebook and Friendster. It’s just so very static.
Hadi Awang’s official homepage looks to be a blog although it has links to other features. It’s all in BM and hardly appealing to anyone other than those who already support him.
No doubt, some individual leaders are web-savvy, most notably Lim Kit Siang, who has a vibrant blog and a popular Twitter feed. But he’s an exception rather than the rule. And he doesn’t seem to have a comprehensive official homepage. It’s more like a placeholder for his blog.
As for the coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, I can’t seem to find an official homepage. There are a couple of blogs. Here and here. Are they official? No idea. Are they good? No.
Instead of just criticizing Pakatan for not having a coherent New Media strategy (or any New Media strategy for that matter), here are some ideas they should consider.
1. There should be comprehensive, official homepages for
- Pakatan as a coalition (non-existent to my knowledge)
- Each party (the existing ones could use a facelift… actually major surgery)
- Each key leader (the prominent ones)
2. Elements that the sites should have:
- Rapid response FAQ (dealing with breaking news and hot issues)
- Blog
- Links to relevant news stories
- Schedule of events
- Speeches, press releases, policy papers etc…
- Press clippings
- Embedded Twitter and Facebook feeds
- Embedded Photo slideshow
- Embedded videos and audio (podcast)
- Donation box
- Press download section containing pictures and other material that they can download for use without having to track down the communications officer for media resources.
Example of how New Media can be used to great effect. Today, there was a fracas in Shah Alam when agent provocateurs decided to disrupt the town hall meeting to discuss the temple relocation issue. UMNO leaders and government controlled press will spin this as evidence that Selangor doesn’t know how to deal with sensitive racial issues.
What can the Selangor government do? It can go on the offensive and expose the cow-head protestors for what they are: Agent provocateurs.
If it had a New Media strategy in place, it could do the following:
i) Live Twitter of what’s happening from Selangor State Government’s perspective
ii) Video feed — live if possible but later a professionally-produced version for YouTube that again highlights the fact that the cow-head disruptors were there as agent provocateurs
iii) Picture slideshow of what happened, from Selangor State Government’s perspective
iv) FAQ account of what happened, again from Selangor State Government’s perspective
v) Podcast interview with Khalid Samad, Khalid Ibrahim and some witnesses on what happened there.
After that, alert the media, especially Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and various bloggers of the resources above. And push them out through Facebook, Twitters and so on. That would effectively deflect whatever spin the Barisan operatives would try to put on the news.
Can they do this? Of course they can. They just need to get the infrastructure and people in place. Yes, and it takes money. You want to do it well, you have to put in the resources.
Before anyone says “But the opposition is poor”, please don’t insult our intelligence. No doubt, Pakatan doesn’t have the resources of Barisan but Pakatan controls four states (used to be five) and have seen a surge in support from the public and businesses (and businessmen) since the historic March 8, 2008. They can well afford to have a good New Media presence.
It’s just a question of whether they believe it’s necessary. I suspect that some Pakatan leaders
i) Are complacent and believe that Pakatan is actually on the cutting edge of New Media (it’s not)
ii) Don’t believe New Media will play such a crucial role in 2013 (it will).
I’ll tell you why 2013 will be truly a cyber-election.
i) A whole bunch of younger people will become eligible to vote — they are the Net-savvy generation, the digital natives.
ii) Broadband, though very iffy right now, will be ubiquitous with 4G and WiMAX being widely available everywhere.
iii) Cheap smart phones will flood the market. People will be accessing information through their phones. This includes text, pictures, audio and video.
Most importantly, Barisan will be gearing up for it. Also, today, many of the most proactive and prominent bloggers, like Rocky’s Bru, are pro-government not pro-opposition. Can Pakatan afford to sit idle and be left behind in New Media?
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