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The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
THE RISE OF POLITICAL BLOGS: THE FRACTURE OF
MALAYSIAN HEGEMONY
by
Mohd Amirul Akhbar Mohd Zulkifli
Norsham Firdaus
Faculty of Communication and Media Studies
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
[The Asian Conference on Media and Mass Communication, October 28-30 2010, The Ramada Osaka, Osaka,
Japan]
INTRODUCTION
The political development of Malaysia can be classified as a multicoloured one. Besieged
by various social issues ranging from the encounter and conflict on customs, religions and varied
culture, the pursuit of reformation from the economical point of view and also the crisis of the
political leadership have been the causes for the political leadership of this member of
commonwealth nation.
Some sectors regard the year 2008 was illdisposed towards the administration of Abdullah
Badawi, not as a miracle which he created in the year 2004. Abdullah was looked upon as a very
complacent political figure as such he was unable to withstand the onslaught of the political
tsunami or appropriately termed as reformation of the political system which started at the end of
the administration of Malaysian maverick – Mahathir Mohammad. The situation in Malaysia was
vastly different when it was under Mahathir’s administration.
For example, the miracle of Malaysia was largely centered upon the ability of Mahathir to
maintain the “status-quo” when confronted by the crisis on politics and economy at the end of
1990s, Mahathir continued to steer the nation until the year 2003 eventhough being pressured by
the group which championed on the significance of good governance, transparency,
accountability, abolition of nepotism and also to create a kind democracy which was not a quasi
one.
The bare truth was that, eventhough the transfer of power from Mahathir to Abdullah
which took place on 30 th October 2003, nevertheless it did not change the media lannscape in
Malaysia. Media continued its role as a medium which upheld the ideology of the government
and became the foremost voice in dissiminating information to the public. This practice had
fulfilled the concept of amicable relationship between the government and the media. The irony
was eventhough the press was either directly or indirectly controlled by the government, it
nevertheless failed to contain forceful current of political tsunami which altered the political
landscape of Malaysia.
This working paper is aiming to highlight the role of new media specifically the political
blogs which caused the fissure in the governmental hegemony of the national front under the
leadership of Abdullah Badawi. The main reason here is to deliver a preliminary assessment of
the Malaysian political blog and how it contributed to the fracture of the hegemony eventhough
the mainstream of the most mass media was owned and controlled by the government. Research
carried out by this paper was infact a closed-up approach on the qualitative analysis of the Malay
and English language of the political blogs.
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