The prime minister was asked to comment on the crucial role of Facebook and Twitter, that has eventually led to the resignation of Egyptian strongman, President Hosni Mubarak, and how that recent incidents of ousting its leaders in the Arab world, translates to Malaysia.
“We’re not going to take that line. We’re talking about engaging the people so that the people understand the intention of government policies because the intention is good, because sometimes, they get a wrong appreciation about what we do,” he said, citing the growing group of fans on Facebook against 100-story tower project, as an example.
The Egyptian government had briefly banned the micro-blogging site, Twitter, as a result of massive protests arranged via social networking sites.
Najib said the power of the Internet is not surprising as it is part of a global phenomenon.
He added that the government can either choose to not partake in the global trend, or embrace it.
“We have chosen to be part of it but that means we have to manage it.
“We have a society that’s more educated, a society that’s more technologically savvy and therefore the challenge is more on the government to manage this new political environment,” he said.
Najib admitted that it is not an easy task because they do not have a monopoly over information or over the dissemination of information, highlighting the inaccuracies in certain postings in the past.
“In fact, social networking information can be disseminated in real time, it doesn’t mean the views are correct,” he said.
However, he maintains the effectiveness of the novel way of reaching out to the mass. “I’m a part of Facebook and I’m doing my own tweeting now. People don’t believe I’m tweeting myself, but I am,” the prime minister said.
PKR deputy president, Azmin Ali, told The Malaysian Insider earlier today that the opposition parties had always utilised the new technology such as Facebook, blogs and web sites, even in the last general election.
“Generally that is the method that we are using now to engage with them and it is so powerful. Also, I had a tweet-up with bloggers and civil societies and younger groups recently to help them understand PR’s policies,” he said.
The Gombak MP said that while the biggest party in the ruling coalition, Umno, has their own cyber troopers, the level of confidence in the public towards Umno is diminishing.
“So whatever they say, people don’t trust them, so that’s why we rebut Umno/BN through the social network using this. It is so useful and effective and that is why Hishammuddin announced recently that they want to curb this sort of activities. So it’s an aproach that is moving backwards under Umno/BN and we have to explain this to the people — look they are moving backwards but we have the potential to lead Malaysia to greater heights,” he said.
He also claimed that the government fears online dissent.
“Certainly, they don’t want the truth to be disclosed but I believe the people, they want the truth to prevail, and earlier we witnessed that people’s power prevailed in Egypt.
“It is a great step towards democracy and I think Malaysians will monitor this development closely and we will continue to engage with them and communicate with them through this means,” he said. - Malaysian Insider
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