Sarawak BN takes battle to cyberspace

The state BN is gearing up for online war in the coming general election.

KUCHING: Embattled Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his band of “merry” ministers are gearing up for a full fight in cyberspace in their bid to retain all 31 parliamentary seats in the soon-to-be-held general election.

It is learnt that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is counting on Sarawak to deliver in full the 31 seats as looming uncertainties plague Sabah.

Sabah has 25 seats up for grabs in the parliamentary polls.

But a divided Umno Sabah, discontentment within the state Barisan Nasional coalition and a rising awareness among Sabahans of their “ill-treatment” by BN have spurred a new awakening.

In Sarawak, BN has 29 seats, of which BN allies Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) has 14, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (six), Sarawak United People’s Party (five) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) four.

Sarawak BN lost one seat to the opposition in the 2008 general election. It lost a second seat – Bandar Sibu – in a parliamentary by-election in May last year.

Sarawak BN had at the time blamed the opposition’s “expert” use of the Internet for its loss.

The Internet has played an integral part in the opposition’s success in Sarawak.

Opposition’s headstart

In the most recent state election, the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition won a historic 15 seats in the State Legislative Assembly.

This, despite the fact that PBB had set up a cyber unit to counter the opposition’s accusations against Taib both locally and abroad.

Rumours are rife here that the general election could come anytime between October and next April. And the Sarawak BN is not leaving anything to chance.

It is learnt that Taib has directed the PBB cyber unit, established during the run-up to the recent state polls, to be beefed up and converted into the BN coalition’s new media unit, better known as Unit Media Baru (UMB).

Undaunted by the opposition’s “headstart” in the cyber war, UMB’s mission is to bullldoze away the ever thickening layers of allegations of corruption, land grabs, cronyism and abuses against Taib and his administration.

Heading the UMB team is PBB Youth information chief Abdul Aziz Adenan. According to Abdul Aziz, the mission is to win the polls.

“The whole idea is to ensure that the BN will retain all the current seats held by the four state BN component parties in the coming general election.

“The cyber world has not been fully utilised by the BN.

“This time around we will make full use of this new media to bring the message across to the rakyat,” he said.

Exploiting the Internet

The 13th general election has been touted to be the biggest challenge ever for BN. Already the coalition and its allies in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak are feeling the heat.

In the cyber battle, every facet of the Internet is being exploited.

Said Abdul Aziz: “UMB will use all the available cyber tools such as the Internet, blogs, Facebook, twitter and even the short messaging system (SMS) to counter smear campaigns against BN leaders.

“This is quite challenging, especially for the present generation, who are bombarded with e-mails, Facebook posts and websites, with information (that are) mainly political propaganda from both sides of the fence, either directly or subtly.

“The new unit has been very active. In Sarawak alone we have more than 100 active BN Facebookers who assisted the state BN during the last state election,” he said.

Meanwhile, local daily Borneo Post reported that UMB aimed to “galvanise” the BN component parties into a single entity to enable the parties to collectively counter Pakatan’s cybertroopers and opposition sympathisers.

It said UMB decision-makers include SUPP’s Afred Yap and PRS’ Majang Renggi. Also on the team is SPDP’s Audi Chua.

Register youth voters

BN leaders both in the peninsula and here have acknowledged the need to reach out to the young voters.

In the 2008 general election, the young voters were said to have played a key role in the opposition’s victory in five states.

Earlier this month, Abdul Aziz urged political parties and relevant agencies to focus on registering youths aged between 21 and 25.

He said there were millions of unregistered voters in this particular age group even though the current minimum voting age is 21.

He said it was vital that youths are made to realise the importance of exercising their rights through the ballot boxes.

In the April 16 state polls, the opposition’s success was attributed partly to Net-savvy youths who convinced their families in Sarawak to hold back their support from BN.