Focus Focus: Bum-Rushing Twitterjaya

How 'twitterticians' are embracing new social media (and sometimes getting it wrong).

"Do you use brylcreem?" That was the opening question for @cmlimguaneng (i.e. DAP's Lim Guan Eng, Chief Minister of Penang), who joined the ever-growing Twitter community mid-April. Whether he did or did not use the styling product is not what's of real interest here (he doesn't use the stuff, btw), but that there seems to be an increasing number of people's representatives (MPs and ADUNs) who've signed up and signed into the social networking philosophy.

What's going on? Is the embracing of Twitter (and Facebook, too) by politicians a trend, like some Multi-Level-Marketing scheme or AsiaWorks? Or is there something more to this sudden influx of interest?

Malaysia is increasingly urbanized. About 60% (or more) of the population currently reside in an urban context, where technology - especially mobile technology - is just everyday life. And since some 70% of all Malaysians are under the age of 40 (the median age is 25 years, while a good 30% of our total population are under the age of 15), it appears that more of our citizens will be early adopters of such lifestyle-changing technology.

In one generation (and a bit), we've gone from analogue cassettes and videos to iPods and YouTube (and iPads); we've gone from monthly magazines and printed dailies to instant online news and microblogs; we've gone from an iron-fisted Prime Minister to...?

The way Malaysians - and the young around the world, for that matter - consume information, has changed and continues to change. The old order of information flow no longer applies. Post-March 2008 General Election, with an increase in the number of young elected representatives (the youngest MP currently is Teo Nie Ching, b. 1981, for Serdang; the youngest ADUN is Nik Nazmi, b. 1982, for Seri Setia), political parties have begun to see that the future - and their future, especially - rests with the young.

But maybe, just like the lyrics from that 80s hit 'Singkong dan Keju' says ("Aku suka dangdut/ kau suka disko/ ah! ah!"), the young and politics are just into different things. The perception we're familiar with is that the youth appear prone to apathy and languid leisure, while politicians appear prone to corruption through wealth and power.

In a country where over 300,000 have officially left the country in the past year and where the terms 'brain drain' and 'middle income trap' signify our nation's economic catch-22, it is politics and those who practise it who appear to be either keeping the young from leaving, or keep the young feeling like they need to leave. It is politics and our politicians who, by and large, help to shape our nation's tormented psychological landscape - think beer and canings, think murdered Mongolians, think draconian laws that might whisk you away in the middle of the night without ever having to explain why.

At the same time, it is not all doom and gloom. Politics and politicians can never function without the larger populace. It is the people - you, me, and the over 18 million Malaysians who are eligible to vote - who have granted these individuals the power to preside over our nation's interest.

For the longest time, it felt like we could never really speak to these Malaysian stewards on an equal footing. Politicians and politics lay in a shroud, hidden from the public eye. It was like they did not really have to care about what people thought of them, at least until an election lay ready round the corner.

But this is all changing, thanks to sites like Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today, Malaysian Insider and Twitter. We now get to hear about the latest, fastest, although sometimes inaccurate news before tomorrow's dailies hit the stands. We now can find out what @elizabethwong is thinking about when it comes to plastic bags, or what @Khairykj feels about last night's Man U match, or how #yorais is a douche. Now, we can.

And with an influx of these politicians on Twitter, battling it out for public opinion, it will only be a matter of time before we hold inaugural elections for Twitterjaya. Get on board!

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Fahmi Fadzil is a Malaysian performer & writer. You can follow him at http://twitter.com/fahmi_fadzil.

Article taken from KLue Magazine May 2010, Issue 139.