Malaysian Election & Social Media

Yesterday, I saw few bloggers that I follow on Facebook posting about how Malaysians needed help with their political stances. Malaysia had their parliamentary election on May 5th and many citizens, especially the Chinese people (their the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia), were extremely disappointed by the result because they highly suspected that fraud occurred during vote-counting process. Many Chinese people voted for the opposing party as they tried to challenge "National Front", the current ruling party, because they have been dominating the country for over 50 years already.

The news went viral on social media, especially facebook within 24 hours. Many Malaysians and people from the Asia-Pacific region, especially Taiwan, have changed their profile pictures to a pitch-black photo, expressing their disappointment and sadness regarding the "democracy" they enjoyed. Many were also sharing similar photos such as the one on the right. (It roughly translates to "I am Taiwanese. Please help Malaysia abolish dark politics. 5/5 Rest in Peace, Democracy"). Hundreds of Malaysians also turned to President Obama's Facebook Page to ask for help.

I cannot say that the fraud did occur, even though voters had recorded videos of scandalous acts by the National Front and shared them on Facebook. Neither did I read any further news for follow up, but it appears to me quite shocking that the same party has been ruling Malaysia for over 50 years already, even though it is a democratic country. And in terms of the virality of information on social media, this is another example of how social media might help to bring changes (whether for good or bad) to a situation.