(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
According to Baharuddin (2000) the initial impact of Internetwas detected in 1999 when
more readers began to focus and concentrate their finding on the webs of the pro opposition as
compared to the web of pro-government and also from the newspapers adapted from the
mainstream media (See Baharuddin Aziz, et.at, 2000). As Baharuddin states:
Since the policy of open sky implemented by the government
in the middle of 1990s and the absense of screening in
Internet as stipulated in the Communication and Multimedia
Act 1998 had brought changes in the manner of relaying the
information. If in the first and second election witness the
presence of alternative webs and role played by Short
Messaging Service (SMS), the general election this time
(2008)had inclined more towards the existence of “Blog”.
(Baharuddin Aziz, et.al, 2008)
In the initial stage of the development in the use of Internet as an alternative source, there
existed also several other webs which solely focussed on discussion of political issues involving
Anwar Ibrahim, amongst them are:
i) Berita Reformasi (Reforms News)
ii) Saksi (Witness)
iii) Anwar Online
iv) Free Anwar Campaign
v) Crony-Net
vi) Riches of Mahathir Clan
vii) freeMalaysia
viii) www.mahazalim.net
ix) Mahafiraun
x) Malaysiakini.
Through this period Malaysia had undergone two general election which were flooded by
the distribution of information through Internet especially the general elections in 1999 and 2004.
Nevertheless they still failed to unsettle the hegemony of the government when in both elections
the governing party acquired 2/3 mandate in the parliament.
The figures which appeared in Table 1 should ideally be examined and scrutinised by
government as a preparation for the 12 th general election on 8 th March 2008. Most probably the
scruting undertaken was not wholly comprehensive thus resulting in the defeat of National Front
in four states namely Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Perak (returned to National Front on 6 th February
2009), Selangor and Kelantan. For example in th year 1997 the total use of Internet was only
137,400 but in 1997 it had experienced a quantum leap to 1,362,600 bring up the total to
1,500,000 in 1999. This abrupt increase was related to Anwar Ibrahim’s case which caused the
public to change course in getting the information especially from media that was not controlled
by the government.
The situation was even more shocking when in the year 2000 total use of Internet stood at
3,700,000 but in 2004 it had experienced an increase of 6,400,000 bring up the total use to
10,040,400. This clearly indicated that more people were using Itnernet in Malaysia and this
would mean that they would have more excess to the information which was in line with the
characteristics of Internet itself capable of providing information to its user. As Rahmat asserts:
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