(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
Based from the distribution of parliamentary seats, it was seen that out of 222 seats contested in
the election, National Front only acquired 140 seats whereas the balance of 82 seats were bagged by the
Pakatan Rakyat. This scenario clearly demonstrated the change in the public support in which they gave
their votes to the opposition. This clearly highlighted the role of Internet especially those blogs which
tremendously influenced the voters.As stated by Saravanamuthu:
The Internet played a particularly important role in this election.
All the issues and scandals which did not find their way into the
mainstream media or were toned down were given full play and
more on the Internet by well-known bloggers such as Raja Petra
Kamaruddin, Jeff Ooi (himself a DAP candidate), Haris
Ibrahim, Rocky Bru and Nathaniel Tan. The YouTube website
was particularly fortuitous for the Opposition as the Lingam
video and all sorts of political satire was made available to the
electorate before and immediately after the
election.(Saravanamuthus, 2008:51)
As described earlier the role played by the Internet specifically in relaying information through
webs by the political blogs had already been started since the 1999 and 2004 elections and the latest was
in 2008. Eventhough the change was not so obvious especially in the year 1999 but the chasm of
differences for the year 2004 to 2008
Table 10: The Positions of Main Parties – The National Front & People’s Party
in General Elections (GE) in 2004 & 2008
National Front GE 2008 GE 2004
UMNO 79 109
MCA 15 31
MIC 3 9
Others 43 49
Total 140 198
People’s Party
PKR 31 1
PAS 23 8
DAP 28 12
Total 82 21
Parliament Seats As A Whole 222 219
Source: Kuppuswamy, C.S., 2008 pg. 2
Data in table 10 clearly show the achievements of the National Front in the years 2004 and 2008.
In the general election 2004, total number of seats contested was 198 and won by the National Front at 140
seats bringing the percentage to 90.4%. Pakatan Rakyat only acquired 21 seats with the percentage of
9.59%. Nevertheless with the increase in the participation of blogger and Malaysian public which
supported the counter-hegemony had resulted in the shocking outcome in which National Front only won
140 seats from 222 seats contested, while Pakatan Rakyat won 182 seats. It indicated the increase of
36.94% as compared to 9.59% in the year 2004.
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