ICT Is Not The Main Cause of BN's Failure

UMNO still does not get it? Read this piece of story from Sun2Surf titled Don't blame Pak Lah alone: Muhammad .

These statements are made:
“The young voters read less from the mainstream newspapers and more from the bloggers and portals. We (BN) are not so much into this field, thinking that the newspaper is enough. That is our mistake,” Muhammad said.

“They are monopolising a field which appeals to the youngsters. We should give a chance to the prime minister to rehabilitate ourselves in the field of bloggers, portals and SMSes.

“They won because they had used the ICT more effectively than BN. That is the fact. It is not about our failure to influence people or develop the country or state governments,” he said.

If those are the views of UMNO, I am deeply concerned. The party should actually decipher why is it that the young voters read less from the mainstream newspapers but more from from the net. In fact, these so-called young voters selectively chose which blogs to approach and read.

To assume that the mainstream newspapers do not have their presence in the cyberworld is definitely wrong. There is of course The Star Online, Sun 2 Surf, NST online, Berita Harian online, Utusan online et cetera, et cetera, et cetera . There are even pro-Barisan Nasional websites online, namly MyKmu.net which hold a recent live "physical" forum, KPMU.net and several more, so on and so forth.

The Star even launched the All-Malaysian Bloggers Project (AMBP) years back. The latest activity is to provide AMBP registered bloggers with a special movie screening on the condition that "ideas for improvements, changes and features that could enhance the site" are being suggested by commenting on the Editor's blog. Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini did not even need to provide free passes as a persuasiaon effort to gather ideas.

Malaysiakini was the first on the net to run the idea of online Malaysian news. Despite the fact that Malaysia Today is now the most visited site for news, most of the top 10 news sites comprises the other mainstream newspaper-based sites.

This statement here :
“They won because they had used the ICT more effectively than BN. That is the fact. It is not about our failure to influence people or develop the country or state governments,” he said.

should be change to :
"They won not because they had used the ICT more effectively than BN. That is the fact. It is about BN's failure to influence people or develop the country or state governments,"

I cannot say it for a fact that the mainstream newspapers are pro-government. However, that is the general perception after readers flip through their pages. There are just so many issues not reported in a way that the readers feel justified. The people are dissatisfied with how national issues are being dealt with. Mismanagement, efficiency, corruption - it is sometimes too glaring for many citizens that they do not even have to read papers to feel how terrible the current situation is.

Myths to dispel from the statements I picked above :
1) Not only young voters read blogs. Older voters read blogs too.

2) Blogging cannot be logically monopolised by any party. It is a free world out there and not subjected to Printing, Presses and Publications Act annual license renewal. Anyone can register and say what they like anytime. It is the voice of the citizens. People write voluntarily on how they feel about certain issues.

3) Mainstream newspapers can be logically monopolised by interested parties through share acquisitions, governance and business ownerships.

4) Malaysians are not stupid. They are not easily influenced. They are not robots and they are able to think for themselves.

The source is "dissatisfaction with mainstream papers and administration", its symptom is "opposition use ICT more effectively".

When one approach a solution to a problem, it should be through the evaluation of its source and not its symptom.

Stop denying the truth and research why people are dissatisfied instead of harping on the ICT factor as the main cause. If the country had been administered properly, the bloggers would have written good things and not the bad, dissatisfaction would have been kept at a minimum.