At a Bukit Bendera ceramah, Jeff Ooi did something he never could have done online. He slapped himself on the cheek. Twice. Stumping for a spirited crowd, the DAP candidate for the Jelutong parliamentary seat confessed his political transgressions and paid his penance gamely.
“Ten years ago, I was so stupid! I voted Barisan Nasional – so stupid!” the blogger-cum-politician exclaimed, smacking himself on the cheek. “Cukup-lah!” “2004, We got tired of (ex-premier Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) and we have new Mr Nice Guy, Mr Clean (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi).
I voted for him as well. And what have I got, I got V K Lingam … Another hit on my face!”
The Malaysiakini website receives about 100,000 daily hits and has struggled to cope with the volume since an unprecedented series of public protests against the government broke out in recent months. You could view all the series of actions at www.malaysiakini.tv.
According to the co-founder of Malaysiakini, during the election period, there will be increasing by tenfold and they have prepared for that kind of explosion in bandwidth.
Malaysia’s Islamic opposition party PAS runs its own online journal HarakahDaily.net which features six different online television channels and original reporting on the election.
One of the alternative pioneers is Malaysiakini.com, an online news journal which since it began operating in 1999 has been raided by police and denied media passes for its reporters to cover government events. Co-founder Steven Gan said the use of the Internet as a campaign tool was hampered by penetration rates which remain low in rural areas where the government enjoys strong support. “But in urban areas, it is significant. They now have this alternative access to news and other views,” he said.
Anwar last year used the site to release a video clip which allegedly showed a high-profile lawyer brokering top judicial appointments — a scandal which triggered a full royal commission of inquiry. Well-known blogger Jeff Ooi, who is standing as a DAP candidate in the elections, said news and views on blogs appealed to a cross-section of people and was not limited to urban youth alone.
More and more campaign videos will be transmitted through YouTube and MalaysiaKini because it is unlikely for television stations to broadcast them, of course,” said Ooi, who is facing a defamation suit by the government-linked New Straits Times Press.
The monopoly on truth has been cracked by bloggers and others. A lot more people have become more discerning especially after recent demonstrations revealed the stark contrast between the mainstream media’s coverage and the bloggers.
Malaysian bloggers have been heavily criticised by the government which accuses them of spreading lies, and threatened severe punishment and tighter controls on Internet use
