Harapan has lost the social media advantage, says DAP man

DAP's political enemies, notably Umno, have been exploiting social media to narrate that the Pakatan Harapan government is dominated by Chinese, says Syahredzan Johan, political secretary to DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

“When BN lost the federal government in 2018, they needed a narrative to attack the new government.

“With their leaders embroiled in numerous corruption cases, they needed a simple yet effective message to attack the Harapan government.

“So together with their new ally PAS, they rely on the message that this government is supposedly a 'Chinese-dominated or -controlled government'.

"Of course this is completely untrue,” he said as reported by Malay Mail Online.

Syahredzan said that the government has lost the social media advantage to the opposition.

“We have not been able to counter this because of the fact that it has been in-built for so long. We must also admit that as a coalition, we have lost the synergy and effectiveness in social media communications.

“The opposition has taken advantage of the freedom returned to the people to spread their propaganda. We simply have lost the social media advantage we once had," he said.

Syahredzan stressed that Pakatan Harapan must work together as a coalition to counter the narrative when it comes to social media engagement.

He said over the years, the opposition has managed to create a perception in the Malay community that DAP is a Chinese chauvinist party.

While DAP Tanjong Bunga assemblyperson Zairil Khir Johari said when such a narrative is repeated often enough, many allegations and accusations become easily believed.

“Umno continued to make DAP the bogeyman at every general assembly and MCA continued to blame DAP and so on,” he said.

Zairil said that social media is now bombarded by fake news and cybertroopers trolling.

“BN had resorted to this even before GE14 but has now stepped their game up.

“The amount of fake news being made viral daily is quite exasperating. The truth is often inundated by the false,” he said.