I don’t usually ‘like’ Facebook Pages. When I do, it’s so I can receive regular notifications and updates on my personal home feed. Recently, I’ve ‘liked’ several pages, not out of sincere support for these groups or individuals, but so I can be updated with the material they’ve chosen to upload or publish. These pages include Utusan Melayu, UMNO, Barisan Nasional, Najib Razak, Khairy Jamaluddin and a few others.
Expectedly, I began receiving hourly updates on my home feed from the Barisan Nasional page. I made a mental note that they most likely employ a diligent group of staff to upload photos, complete with captions and photoshopped effects, onto the page. Bearing in mind that BN is an amalgamation of parties and therefore a coalition, perhaps their machinery outclasses those of other major political parties and by extension, their social media teams.
Let’s talk statistics for a minute. BN’s Facebook Page has 259,709 followers (users who’ve ‘liked’ the page and are subscribed to its updates) while the Democratic Action Party, the next largest political entity in Parliament, has 512,940 followers. What’s interesting is how many users ‘talk about’ these pages and its content.
Only 5,512 users mention DAP (through tagging) on Facebook and share its photos while a whopping 48,019 users mention BN or share its photos. So BN Facebook posts successfully engages 18% of its support base (if you consider ‘likes’ as support votes) while DAP only manages to engage 1% of its support base.
What’s clear is that there are more Malaysian Facebook users viewing, ‘liking’ and sharing material posted by BN’s social media team, and does the team work hard. There is no question that the hourly photos are well-received and circulated by many users. One can argue that BN’s social media strategy is to aggressively and vigorously post pictures and hope that these pictures go viral through user sharing.
This is all fine and well with me. Indeed, I find BN’s government propaganda and not so professional photo-editing skills quite amusing and a welcomed change of pace to the sometimes depressing news one usually sees online.
That’s until I noticed a trend. A picture of a team of Commandos appeared on my news feed with over 1000 ‘likes’. ‘Surely,’ I thought to myself, ‘us citizens, or at least over a thousand of us, are fascinated with soldiers with guns and cool uniforms’. I wrote it off without much thought.
Then a picture depicting children sitting in an armoured vehicle, dressed in uniform and wielding assault rifles popped up on my feed. The comments mostly read: “How cute!”
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| 1273 likes and 50 shares. |
The caption read: “Melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya”.
To bend a bamboo, start when it’s still a shoot.
How ominous.
In disbelief, that’s when I started paying attention to the content BN publishes and collected a few photos. The following are a sample of uploaded photos onto the Barisan Nasional's Facebook Page by their social media team within a span of 24 hours (Dec 17th - Dec 18th).
A few disturbing inferences can be drawn from their most peculiar strategy to win the hearts and minds of Malaysia:
1. Guns and more guns
The majority of these uploaded photos depict uniformed personnel wielding guns and weaponry. This could be a tactic to garner more 'likes'. However, with already escalating gun violence in Malaysia, why does the Government want to disseminate images of professionals with firearms on an hourly basis to its 259,000 followers, consisting largely of people (such as myself) who don't understand the responsibilities attached to holding and operating a lethal weapon? This is not a game of cops and robbers.
2. Children in Uniform
And with guns. There's not much to be said except that this worrying fascination with children wielding weapons in uniform has to stop. Does a country with developed nation aspirations view its children as armed assets? Are we building brains or brawn?
3. Religion and service
The police and armed forces of Malaysia serve the people of Malaysia and not just a section of it who are Muslim. There is nothing wrong with observing religious rituals such as prayer during service, but one has to wonder why pictures of these service personnel in mass prayers are posted and widely circulated. While 65% of the population are Muslim, will the other 35% have the confidence and assurance that they will be protected?
These pictures are as vexing as they are ludicrous. It is my hope, as a concerned Malaysian citizen (and netizen), that my Government exercise more care and responsibility in its social media strategy.
Dennis Kam
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