Disclaimer : This is an alternate post, and it contains political material
Malaysia, according to a recent report by greyreview, is home to more than 11 million Facebook users, and is Asia’s No. 4 Facebook nation behind Indonesia, India and the Philippines respectively. Malaysians however, aren’t just using this ingenious creation to keep in touch with their friends, and to have some social fun. They’ve actually resorted to Facebook to voice out their opinions, and to make themselves heard, and to be perfectly honest with you, they are doing a pretty good job at it.
In the wake of the recent Bersih 2.0 rally that took place in Malaysia, as well as several other countries by concerned Malaysians, several Facebook pages have been set-up by angry, and dissatisfied Malaysians.
A Facebook page was registered under the title, “100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak’s Resignation“, and moments later, people started flooding the page. The page went viral, and has 52,802 ‘likes’ as I type this. The best part of it? Well, the page has been up for less than a day! Instead of blatantly insulting their leader, who is under immense pressure right now, they figured that being united would be the best way to achieve their goal of having a good government. Some use the page as a medium to share shocking facts, and revelations related to the country’s government.
Impressed? Well, I definitely am. Prior to this, a Facebook page titled, “Curi-Curi Wang Malaysia” was created much to the delight of Malaysian Facebook users. “Curi-Curi Wang Malaysia” was created in reference to the Tourism Ministry of Malaysia’s decision to fork out around 1.8 million Ringgit ($600,000) to ‘develop’ 6 Facebook pages. ”Curi-Curi Wang Malaysia” when translated to English, sounds a little more like this, “Keep Stealing The Money Of Malaysians”.
Social networking is being taken rather seriously nowadays, and with the introduction of Google+, Google’s third social media installment, we might just see more, and more people around the world voice out their opinions using this medium. Very impressive I must say.
Social media has definitely played a huge part into people’s lives, even more so during the Sarawak Elections earlier this year. Without the internet, people are forced to believe everything in the traditional media (newspapers, news on TV). However with the rising usage of the new social media (Facebook, Twitter, websites, etc), Sarawakians were able to get in touch with the views of the other party besides the biased point of views of BN and we managed a good and hopeful fight (and we know we will fight a better fight in the future, we’re not losing hope).
From the hype of Bersih 2.0, hopefully fence-sitters and those who have not yet registered themselves as voters in Malaysia will register to vote for a better future. Walking the walk is not enough – what matters is your vote in the General Election itself. Unity, hope, faith and prayer for the country is very much needed.
Posted by mintyandpeaches | July 11, 2011, 6:45 pmis already more den 100k now
Posted by biz | July 11, 2011, 10:17 amThe Internet is the best way to get free, unbiased media and information, especially at a time where the fundamental freedom of the press in this country is greatly challenged.
Posted by tzh | July 11, 2011, 6:07 amWhat you saw these few days are actually we Malaysians doing what we learn thus far. It’s the application of everything we know from our textbooks. Mainstream media can blind us, but our shouts can be heard everywhere. What the PM did jeering us Malaysians and spreading falsehood are totally naive and irresponsible. As mush as I like him before, I can just throw that away in the trash now. As the old saying goes: A friend, (when you are) in need, is indeed a true friend.
Posted by A Friend | July 11, 2011, 5:09 amit is the 1st time I see our Malaysian, we are all Malaysian stand and unite and show our stand. We want a clean election and we are Malaysian. Malaysia is our motherland, Malaysia is our country. Malaysia belongs to Malaysian, not Umno, Not Barisan not malay but Malaysian
Posted by Lim Seng Yeow | July 11, 2011, 1:06 amBut still im kind of sad cause i saw comments which blame on bersih 2.0, bring chaos to the city..
Posted by KJ | July 11, 2011, 12:47 amSuppression only leads to an alternative outlet to vent frustrations.
The lid has been vacuum-sealed on Malaysian society for too long and sooner or later, someone’s gotta bear with the recoil.
Posted by Stephen Fah | July 10, 2011, 9:48 pmyes … definitely a facebook moment!
Posted by Mac Chung Yew | July 10, 2011, 9:37 pmIn fact, if all of the Malaysians who are on Facebook in support of BERSIH 2.0 were to attend the march on the 9th July 2011 in KL, it would overwhelm the FRUs & PDRM easily!
Posted by Xander | July 10, 2011, 8:52 pmWe Malaysians united as one Nation, one Goal and one Direction to fight for justice and better tomorrow !!
Posted by Kopi O Kao | July 10, 2011, 8:34 pmthank you for writing it. we love Malaysia and we are eagerly hoping for a change, a must to change, a change before a mass emotional explosion for the nation, that could lead to a serious battle between us and the government. Just look at the way how they handling the peace rally supposed to be; they as the police can just simply abused their power by hitting, beating, yelling, not to mention fired tear gas towards hospital – later denied everything (include the mainstream media) when all are shown through the powerful social media…we need and want a change, we do not want a government who is only greedy over power, never put the people as the priority.
Please tell the world what has happened in Malaysia. The truth.
Posted by Love from Malaysia | July 10, 2011, 8:34 pmthe government can control all the major medias and twist the fact, but they can’t control facebook ! Facebook ROCK !
Posted by ckeong | July 10, 2011, 8:30 pmand just now more than 70000 ‘likes’…
Posted by ecen | July 10, 2011, 8:17 pmBersih 2.0 for Merdeka 2.0.
Posted by Dzulfikar Mohammad Adam Kamil | July 10, 2011, 8:15 pmThe media is being controlled by the Government (Barisan Nasional). The media feeds the people with false and twisted facts and we have been denied our rights to speak up for ourselves, our neighbours as well as our younger generations.
Facebook is like our heaven, shall I say, having all the Malaysians regardless of race to unite for justice and basic human rights. I dare say BN’s period of stay in power is running up. We will change our government in the next General Election. United we stand. We are Malaysian.
Posted by SL Voon | July 10, 2011, 8:14 pmIm proud to be a Malaysian now seeing all thr rakyat going united despite color and racial differences!
Posted by Lovely Willow | July 10, 2011, 8:11 pm