Pengkalan Pasir by-election

1. 19th Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) Annual
Conference 2010
21 – 23 June 2010
The Role of blogs in an emerging
society: A study of a Malaysian
by-election
Dr. Syed Arabi Idid
Khaizuran Abdul Jalil
Communication Department
Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences
International Islamic University Malaysia

2. Outline
 Introduction
 Research Question
 Democratization of Information
 Blogs and elections
 Elections in Malaysia
 By-election
 Methodology
 Findings & Conclusion

3. Introduction
 Exponential growth of blogsphere
worldwide – Technocrati
 Medium of political participation – shape
the democratic process in the country
 Lack of empirical studies

4. Research Questions
 What is the role of bloggers during the by-
election?
 What issues are raised in the blogsphere
during the by-election?
 Do blogs play the same role or a different
role from the conventional media during
elections?

5. Democratization of
Information
 Pangloss, Pandora or Jefferson?
(Benjamin R. Barber, 2006)
 Blogging in Malaysia – leveling the
political field
 Democratic participation

6. Blogs and elections
• 2004
• Political blogsphere in Malaysia is
expanding
• Strengthened by prominent figures
(bloggers) such as Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad, A.Kadir Jasin, Jeff Ooi, Lim
Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim

7. Elections in Malaysia:
General election
 Parliamentary form Democracy with
Constitutional monarchy.
 General Election every 5 years to elect:
– House of Representatives (Parliament)
222 seats
– State Legislative Assemblies
(each state except federal territories)
576 state seats

8. Elections in Malaysia:
General election
 27 political parties in Malaysia
 15 in Peninsular, 7 in Sabah & 5 in Sarawak
 National Front (BN) is a coalition of 14
political parties headed by United Malay
National Organization (UMNO)
 BN had won every single general election
since Malaysia’s independence

9. Elections in Malaysia:
by-election
 By-election – vacancy in state /
parliamentary constituency due to death,
resignation , disqualification or other causes
if it occurred before the Parliament or all
State Legislatures are due to dissolve.
 This study focused on the Pengkalan Pasir,
Kelantan by-election on 6 December 2005

10. N12 Pengkalan Pasir, Kelantan
 Stronghold of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party
(PAS)
 Poor district, voters mainly farmers and
small traders
 Majority of voters are Malay (94.8%)
 Chinese voters (5.09%) Indian voters
(0.3%) other races (0.1%)
 Half of the voters are women (50.18%)

11. Methodology
 Quantitative Content Analysis
 Keyword sampling method
 75 active blogs
 5 categories:
– Nationality of bloggers (2 categories)
– Blogger’s support (4 categories)
– Issue discussed (8 categories)
– Field of blogs (5 categories)
– Language (3 categories)

12. Findings:
1 November 2005 to 11 December 2005
 Bloggers’ nationality and support.
 Malaysians or Local (97%, n=75)
 Nearly half support PAS (44%)
 Non-partisants:
– Professionals (16%)
– Neutral (27%)

13.  Figure1: Bloggers political support During
the Pengkalan Pasir by-election Campaign
70%
60%
50% 44%
40%
30% 27%
20% 16%
13%
10%
0%
BN Opposition Non-partisan Neutral
Professional

14. Findings:
 Issues discussed
– 42.7% on election issues e.g. state of Pengkalan
Pasir.
– 18.7% on information on the election.
– 14% BN issues
– 10.7% opposition issues
– 4% issues related to
 democracy
 Islam
 dissatisfaction with election result
– 1.3% on corruption

15. Findings
 Field of blogs
– 80% commentaries
– 9.3% referral to political party websites.
– 6.7% chatting.
– 2.7% reference to mainstream media.
– 1.2% broadcasting.

16. Findings
 Languages used by the bloggers were
divided into three categories namely
unilingual, bilingual and multilingual

17. Findings
 Language
 Unilingual
– 45% Malay
– 41% English
– 1% Arabic
 Bilingual– 9% English & Malay
 Multilingual 3%

18.  Figure 2: Language used.
Bilingual Multilingual
9% 3%
Arabic Malay
1% 46%
English
41%

19. Conclusion
 BN won the by-election despite stronger
support for the opposition in the
blogsphere
– Hanafi Mamat (BN) won with a majority of 134 votes
– Hanafi Mamat won 7,422 votes defeating Hanifa Mat
Yatim 7,288 votes. Independent candidate, Ibrahim
Ali polled 415 votes.
 Malaysian bloggers dominated the
discussion.
 Malay and English languages were
equally used.

20. Conclusion
 50% of the bloggers remained neutral in
their political comments.
 The other half are mainly supporters of
PAS.
 Generally the opposition parties and their
supporters seem to utilise the blogsphere
more than the ruling party

21. Conclusion
 Election issues such as those on election
campaigns, election process and political
party (BN and opposition) are among the
top issues in the blogsphere.
 Issues discussed were not directly on the
voters’ concern rather covered a wider
public perspective.

22. Conclusion
 Itwas found that the political blogsphere
opens up an avenue for public discourse
that do not directly involve the voters.
 Blogs cannot operate in isolation.
 Stronger support for the opposition online
do not translate into votes in the by-
election.

23. Thank You