INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND GE13 SCENARIO IN MALAYSIA

How the internet and technology affected our politics in Malaysia? Consciously, we are being attacked by thousands of information towards the GE 2013. The explosion information happened through various medium.  The good infrastructure and facilities of technology advancement as internet, now taken place and these technology developments have had influence on the way, we as Malaysian to face the coming of GE13. About 13,105,407 million of total voters and can we imagine how is going to be when all the voters are using the internet to follow the GE13.

In simple definition, information technology is that we used to store, manipulate, distribute or create information while the technology is a mechanism, how the data is process.

I still remember, 23 years ago (I am 11 years old, in year of 1990’s) the GE scenario is very different compared to now. At that time, all the PRU information’s is only been discuss in the coffee shop, door to door and within local community. There is no I formation technology tools used to share about Malaysia GE. It is only just limited to press and television only. And there is not so much press available for us to get the latest information as well as TV channel. It is really limited.  

But today, I realised in the year of 2013, it is totally change. The explosion of information technology and technology device enhancement is killing us. Since the election comes around the corner, every now and then, we are keep been informed the status of GE13. Either throughout email, SMS, social media network and others medium, it is now works for 24/7. For many Malaysians who are now seemingly a better informed lot, they see this as facilities helping the candidates (government or oppositions) to do the campaign and have come out with their guns blazing to try and buy over as many voters as possible.

How the information technology has revolutionised political communication. Parties, candidates and voters use the internet to do their campaign. Today, there is a lot social media network been used by parties as the platform to disburse all the information regarding the GE13, to secure votes. The rapid technology advancement helps the voters to get the latest and update information towards their favourite’s candidates. They are creating a network of committees to support the campaign. They used blog as community chatting to share what in their minds and to convince floating voters. All the bloggers keep busy updating their blogs and share with voters about their opinion towards GE13. Some candidates choose electronics device as affective as social medium to approach the voters.

Today we have 7.7 currently using of smartphone with android and iOS application. Now, information transfer using the phone technology as Blackberry, Galaxy Samsung, I-Phone, IPAD, laptop more effective compared to the traditional way. The internet changing the way candidates approach voters with great speed on the election campaigns by aimed at specific groups of voters or targeting. The internet is seen as a chance to establish direct contact without the mediation of journalist. Nevertheless, the television and newspaper continues to play a role for the marketing campaign. Political parties and their candidates can launch election campaigns via the Internet, for instance by updating their blogs, home pages and social-networking services, including Facebook and Twitter.

Realize with the Malaysian capability spending on the smartphone plus with the IT facilities provided in Malaysia, there is a lot of company provide the android applications to be downloading by voters in order to help them being updated from time to time. The latest application is powered by local Malaysian company, Appandus Sdn Bd and can be downloaded by users via Google Playstore or Apple App Store. Appandus through the App, they prepare all the information regarding the GE2013 covered in 727 election locations that they gathered from Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) .

The applications is easy to be used with great features. The social media network as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, We Chat, What’s App has been used to approach voters as their ‘electronic leaflets’ by uploading the photos and biographies of the candidates, electoral programmes, agenda and their promised.

But other traditional medium as television, radio and press are more interactive and the content of the information’s may different compared to the online version of information. But it is a big challenge to SKMM and Cyber Security to monitor the internet used during this GE13. All the information’s exploded must be screen to avoid misused and ethics.

Overall, we can conclude that the parties used the internet communication tool to complement but no way had substitutes of offline activities since it is easy to engaging with cyber-volunteers to circulate their message and it is cost effective compared to the printed materials.

Malaysians still put their trust in traditional media as their officially and main source of information. 

Sources : http://appandus.com/
               http://www.spr.gov.my/
               http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Digital1/Story/A1Story20130430-419358.html
               http://www.sv.uio.no/isv/english/people/aca/runekarl/index.html
        Business Driven Technology, Palge Baltzan, 3rd Ed, McGraw-Hill