Published: Feb 23, 2024
COMMENT | Poor messaging. Ah, that's what led to the collapse of the first Pakatan Harapan government, so it was said.
For example, in Feb 2019, then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad noted, “We found that the people were not aware of what has been done by the government and we do not have a (mechanism) to explain.”
Four years after the Sheraton Move, how much has changed?
Not much, going by the inroads made by Perikatan Nasional in the last general and six state elections. Instead, it suggests that their narrative is gaining traction, especially in weaponising issues of race and religion.
DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has also lamented the various communications failures of Harapan.
So, what is the response of the Madani government, especially Harapan?
To use a football analogy, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil seems to be playing defence against the torrent of racial attacks being heaped.
For example, in early Feb, he “advised” the public to exercise caution amidst social media slander. He also urged people to watch RTM's “Biar Betul” segment on TV (or its TikTok version) that debunks fake news.
‘RTM dinosaurs’
But dear sir, we need something stronger than mere “advice” to deal with the “Green Wave” onslaught.
COMMENT | Poor messaging. Ah, that's what led to the collapse of the first Pakatan Harapan government, so it was said.
For example, in Feb 2019, then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad noted, “We found that the people were not aware of what has been done by the government and we do not have a (mechanism) to explain.”
Four years after the Sheraton Move, how much has changed?
Not much, going by the inroads made by Perikatan Nasional in the last general and six state elections. Instead, it suggests that their narrative is gaining traction, especially in weaponising issues of race and religion.
DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has also lamented the various communications failures of Harapan.
So, what is the response of the Madani government, especially Harapan?
To use a football analogy, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil seems to be playing defence against the torrent of racial attacks being heaped.
For example, in early Feb, he “advised” the public to exercise caution amidst social media slander. He also urged people to watch RTM's “Biar Betul” segment on TV (or its TikTok version) that debunks fake news.
‘RTM dinosaurs’
But dear sir, we need something stronger than mere “advice” to deal with the “Green Wave” onslaught.
As for RTM, well it seems like a prehistoric dinosaur, which an MP once called “Rehat Tunggu Mati” (resting while awaiting death). I still remember the cringe-inducing Chinese New Year video last year by RTM, featuring Anwar Ibrahim and a hapless rabbit.
Does “Biar Betul” do better on TikTok? Sadly no. It's nowhere near as slick and catchy as what we expect on this platform.
For example, a stodgy clip explaining the fall of the ringgit’s value had only one comment and 46 likes.
Honestly, they should take lessons from Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman on how to use social media effectively. Please give him a “discount” on his potential prison sentence for such public service!
Another official initiative that has done better is “Suara Anak Madani” (SAM). This is something like the government’s answer to the hugely popular “Keluar Sekejap” talk show by former Umno politicians Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahril Sufian Hamdan.
SAM is a YouTube programme moderated by the prime minister's senior political secretary Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin. It discusses various issues with guest panellists. One nice touch is that shows start with a live band.
The first six episodes garnered about 16,000 views each. However, it has declined since then and the last two episodes had below 300 views each. Sadly, SAM only has 950 subscribers.
Something seems amiss and SAM is not another kind of SAM, a “Surface to Air Missile” that's needed to repel the airborne propaganda assaults against the government.
Removing fake news
The latest step is to set up a code of ethics for journalists. It sounds good in theory but it feels trapped in a time warp of the 1980s when government bureaucracy could regulate TV or print journalists.
Wake up, people. The attacks against the government no longer come from official journalists but from any social media warrior on TikTok, Facebook or YouTube. That's the real battleground.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil
A much stronger move has been to simply remove fake news. Fahmi denied that social media content is being erased for being critical of him or the government.
Rather, he claimed it's because 70 percent of them involved illegal sales and online scams.
What about the other 30 percent? There were 4,008 labelled as “fake news”, 2,858 (offensive content), 599 (pornographic) and 37 (threatening content).
For example, I looked for the original videos on TikTok claiming that a China flag seen in Seremban last October meant, well, you know the usual racial hate stuff.
Instead, I could only find the official rebuttals to that from portals such as My Check Malaysia and Sebenarnya.my
It turns out that the China flags were part of an international Guan Gong cultural festival in Seremban with multiple countries taking part.
That means many political provocations based on lies have probably been scrubbed away. Though he denies it, I applaud Fahmi for finally doing something against this cancer.
Not democratic?
Some Bangsar liberals may say that this limits free speech online. Yes, ideally, we should have race relations or national harmony laws that make hate speech a crime, as Seputeh MP Teresa Kok had proposed.
A much stronger move has been to simply remove fake news. Fahmi denied that social media content is being erased for being critical of him or the government.
Rather, he claimed it's because 70 percent of them involved illegal sales and online scams.
What about the other 30 percent? There were 4,008 labelled as “fake news”, 2,858 (offensive content), 599 (pornographic) and 37 (threatening content).
For example, I looked for the original videos on TikTok claiming that a China flag seen in Seremban last October meant, well, you know the usual racial hate stuff.
Instead, I could only find the official rebuttals to that from portals such as My Check Malaysia and Sebenarnya.my
It turns out that the China flags were part of an international Guan Gong cultural festival in Seremban with multiple countries taking part.
That means many political provocations based on lies have probably been scrubbed away. Though he denies it, I applaud Fahmi for finally doing something against this cancer.
Not democratic?
Some Bangsar liberals may say that this limits free speech online. Yes, ideally, we should have race relations or national harmony laws that make hate speech a crime, as Seputeh MP Teresa Kok had proposed.
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok
We've seen how people who insult the Agong online are promptly arrested for sedition.
The Sedition Act 1948 also makes it a crime “to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia”.
However, why is there a reluctance from law enforcement to take action on the latter?
Whether it's a crime of sedition or under a future racial harmony law, it will involve charging offenders in court, where a huge chanting crowd will gather to defend them.
Will the situation escalate? Will some then claim to be “martyrs” for race and religion? Will the government be accused of being “controlled” by DAP? Will judges be accused of not being “Islamic”?
Sigh…we know how the script goes. Is that why the government has chosen to just quietly remove inflammatory content?
Even this can be considered playing defence but at least it's more proactive. To return to our football analogy, it's something like defensive midfielders stopping attacks from developing.
Winning strategy
What about strikers and attacking midfielders who can score goals against the opposition?
The most effective page I've seen on Facebook that regularly reveals the hypocrisy of the “Green Wave” group is “Suara Rakyat”.
They do it with snappy graphics without long-winded discussions. No wonder they have 750K followers on Facebook.
For those who prefer the spoken medium, “Jom Channel” by Amanah has been taking the fight to PAS for some years. It has 480K subscribers on YouTube.
DAP has Ubah TV (154K subscribers) but it's not really active. Meanwhile, supporters are getting more disillusioned with slow reforms and lack of action on corruption.
I have not seen proactive steps by DAP to deal with this anger. Instead, it's left to former party leaders like Ong Kian Ming to explain why the party has not degraded into an MCA 2.0. His video got 50K views in just two days.
Sadly, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke has dismissed Ong as “talking nonsense”.
Rather than insulting those who are trying to do proper political communication, the party itself should do better in this crucial battleground or are supporters’ votes taken for granted?
We've seen how people who insult the Agong online are promptly arrested for sedition.
The Sedition Act 1948 also makes it a crime “to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia”.
However, why is there a reluctance from law enforcement to take action on the latter?
Whether it's a crime of sedition or under a future racial harmony law, it will involve charging offenders in court, where a huge chanting crowd will gather to defend them.
Will the situation escalate? Will some then claim to be “martyrs” for race and religion? Will the government be accused of being “controlled” by DAP? Will judges be accused of not being “Islamic”?
Sigh…we know how the script goes. Is that why the government has chosen to just quietly remove inflammatory content?
Even this can be considered playing defence but at least it's more proactive. To return to our football analogy, it's something like defensive midfielders stopping attacks from developing.
Winning strategy
What about strikers and attacking midfielders who can score goals against the opposition?
The most effective page I've seen on Facebook that regularly reveals the hypocrisy of the “Green Wave” group is “Suara Rakyat”.
They do it with snappy graphics without long-winded discussions. No wonder they have 750K followers on Facebook.
For those who prefer the spoken medium, “Jom Channel” by Amanah has been taking the fight to PAS for some years. It has 480K subscribers on YouTube.
DAP has Ubah TV (154K subscribers) but it's not really active. Meanwhile, supporters are getting more disillusioned with slow reforms and lack of action on corruption.
I have not seen proactive steps by DAP to deal with this anger. Instead, it's left to former party leaders like Ong Kian Ming to explain why the party has not degraded into an MCA 2.0. His video got 50K views in just two days.
Sadly, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke has dismissed Ong as “talking nonsense”.
Rather than insulting those who are trying to do proper political communication, the party itself should do better in this crucial battleground or are supporters’ votes taken for granted?
Ong Kian Ming
Analysis of social media before the last general elections suggests that both PN and BN paid influencers to promote their messages.
I hope that Harapan is quietly getting into this game too rather than using lame TikTok videos from RTM.
I also wish the government could discreetly fund more initiatives like “Jom Channel” and “Suara Rakyat”, rather than relying on dinosaurs called the Information Department which is busy trying to enforce the new journalist code of ethics.
And what about engaging professional public relations and communications agencies to advise the government on a proper media strategy?
We still have over three years before the next general election to get things right. Let the battle not be lost because of poor communication.
Analysis of social media before the last general elections suggests that both PN and BN paid influencers to promote their messages.
I hope that Harapan is quietly getting into this game too rather than using lame TikTok videos from RTM.
I also wish the government could discreetly fund more initiatives like “Jom Channel” and “Suara Rakyat”, rather than relying on dinosaurs called the Information Department which is busy trying to enforce the new journalist code of ethics.
And what about engaging professional public relations and communications agencies to advise the government on a proper media strategy?
We still have over three years before the next general election to get things right. Let the battle not be lost because of poor communication.
ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at tehtarik@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment