‘Use both conventional methods and social media in campaigns’

KUALA LUMPUR: Traditional and conventional approaches of campaigning for the 14th General Election (GE14) are still relevant, and need to be balanced with more current methods, such as social media.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said campaigning on social media was more about building perception and sentiment, while some believed that playing with people’s emotions could help candidates and parties get votes.

But Asyraf said it was risky for politicians to rely solely on perception and sentiments, as what was more important was the level of confidence and trust voters had in the candidate.

“Barisan Nasional is known to lack supporters on social media, but not everyone is dependent on the Internet,” he said.

“In the context of Malaysia, election work is done at the grassroots level or at the polling district centres. That is why it is not enough to solely rely on sentiments on the Internet.

“If the representative only wins the people’s hearts and does not utilise the Internet, it will also be a problem. So, there is a need to balance these traditional and conventional methods.”

Asyraf was a panellist at the Bicara BH programme titled “The Internet and Elections” at Balai Berita here yesterday.

He said closed social media applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, were considered to be more powerful today than open social media applications, such as Facebook.

This was because people are in several groups on WhatsApp and Telegram, which enabled messages and information to go viral faster.

“The approach of using WhatsApp and Telegram is seen as effective. Most of them will just read through the interesting titles before sharing it with another group.”

Another panellist, Jaringan Melayu Malaysia president Datuk Azwanddin Hamzah, said offline campaigns should go together with online campaigns to attract more youth voters in GE14.

He said there was a need for candidates to go and meet people, and not just conduct online campaigns.

“Both methods need to work hand in hand. The younger voters are more inclined to believe what they read online,” he said.

“There is no way that we can stop the youth or younger generation from being influenced by social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.”

He said youth should be aware of people who had been paid to set up groups online to influence Netizens.

“Some local media portals even admit that they have received foreign funds (such as the National Democracy Institute), and the people behind the institute are actually the architects behind the Iraq war,” he said.

“Some may ask why they are targeting our online news portals. The answer is simple: they want to attack our political agenda and get involved in our politics.”

He said everything that had been posted online and on social media had been well planned by certain groups of people.

“They want to provoke our people, especially in the aspects of race and religion,” he said, adding that youth need to think carefully before making the decision for GE14.

He reminded voters not to believe in the opposition’s sweet talk and political goodies.

“The Penang and Selangor governments, for example, may have promised the voters the stars and the moon. But out of the 14 things that they promised during the 13th General Election, they only managed to implement two.”