FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

STUDIES

COM 654
ASIAN POLITICS

(GROUP ASSIGNMENT)

CLASS: MC245S5A
GROUP: COM654T
LECTURER’S NAME: SIR AHMAD FARAMI BIN ABDUL KARIM
No. NAMES STUDENT ID

1 NUR ADILAH BINTI ZULKEPLEE 2017652384

2 NURFARAH HANI BINTI HAMDAN

3 PUTERI NABILA BINTI MOHD SUHAIMI

4 SITI UMAIRAH BINTI SAIZAN ZUBIR 2017652388

5 NUR AMIRA SYAHIRAH BINTI ITHININ 2017652368

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Politics defines as “the art of possible” as the study of “who gets what, when and
how” as the “authoritative allocation of values”. Politics also the activities associated
with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having
power. In modern nation states, people often form political parties to represent their
ideas. Members of a party agree to take the same position on many issues and agree
to support the same changes to law and the same leaders. An election is usually a
competition between different parties. Some examples of political parties worldwide
are the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the Democratic Party (D) in
the United States, the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, the Christian
Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany and the Indian National Congress in India.

Malaysia has had a multi-party system since the first direct election of the Federal
Legislative Council of Malaya in 1955 on a first-past-the-post basis. The ruling party
was the Alliance Party (Malay Parti Perikatan) coalition and from 1973 onwards, its
successor, the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition. Together with its
predecessor, the Barisan Nasional (BN) government served for 61 years and was one
of the world's longest serving governments until it lost power to the Pakatan
Harapan (PH) coalition in the 14th general election that was held on 9 May 2018.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition currently consists of Democratic Action

Party (DAP), People's Justice Party (PKR), National Trust Party (Amanah)
and Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu) with Sabah Heritage Party (Warisan)
and United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) as
confidence-and-supply partner. While the opposition is predominantly made up
of National Front (BN), Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), Sarawak Parties
Alliance (GPS), Sabah United Alliance (GBS), Sarawak United Party (PSB), and other
smaller parties.
2.0 POLITICAL STRUCTURE

Malaysia is a parliamentary democracy with a federal constitutional monarchy, which

is the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as head of state. This monarchy is chosen for a five-
year term from among their own number by the nine hereditary rulers of Peninsular
Malaysia. These rulers also choose a Timbalan di-Pertuan Agong. The nine hereditary
states are Perlis, Negeri Sembilan, and Kedah, Perak, Johor, Selangor, Pahang,
Terengganu and Kelantan. The head of state in the four states that do not have
hereditary rulers is Melaka, Pulau Pinang, Sabah, and Sarawak. They used the Yang
di-Pertuan Negeri or governor and is appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for a
four-year term.

The hierarchy of authority in Malaysia, in the Federal Constitution, a requirement of

the three branches which are administrative components of the Malaysian government
as consisting of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative branch. The federal
parliament consists of two houses. The upper house, Dewan Negara has 70 members,
of whom 44 are appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and 26 are elected by the
state legislatures. The lower house, Dewan Rakyat which is the council of the people,
more usually called House of Representatives, has 222 members who are directly
elected by universal suffrage. The maximum life of the House of Representatives is
five years members of the Senate hold office for six years. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong
appoints the Prime Minister, on the Prime Minister’s advice and the cabinet.

Bills must be passed by both houses and assented to by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
A bill may originate in either house except a money bill, which may not be introduced
in the Senate. The Senate has the power to hold up for one year a bill which is not a
money bill and which has been passed by the Dewan Rakyat. Each house regulates
its procedure and has control over its proceedings, the validity of which may not be
questioned in any court. A two-thirds majority of both houses is required before the
constitution can be changed.
Identity of Politic in Malaysia

In Malaysia, the identity of politics is still relevant and necessary to be practice,

this is because without politic the administration of the nation will not be work it out.
Moreover, as we know in Malaysia, we have a variety of section which is it based on
variety of races and religious therefore it can be said that politics existence is very
important along with to unity the different races in Malaysia. Besides that, his can be
including to the identity of politic in Malaysia, as we know in Malaysia, we have a
variety of section which is it based on variety of races and religious. Therefore, it can
be said that politics existence is very important along with to unity the different races
in Malaysia and this can be including to the identity of politic in Malaysia.
Identity politics has been existed since before independence, which is the party
politics such as UMNO, has been build and creating MCA and MIC as the
representative for Chinese and Indian party politic under UMNO. However, UMNO,
MCA and Mic were able to transform communal interest into national agenda. In
addition, the Barisan Nasional which is BN was formed in 1974 which is they has been
governed Malaysia until it defeats to Pakatan Haraapan on May 9 last years. However,
the loss of BN is not because of the component members were championing racism
or religious bigotry, but it is because the betrayed the spirit of comradeship,
Malaysians also lost confidence in Barisan Nasional with ability of them in controlling
and lead the country. Besides that, the Malaysian citizen also has lost their trust to the
Barisan Nasional party because of the corruption issues and the issues with 1MDB,
which now has spread towards the citizens.
However, the different that can make with the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan
Harapan is how they advocate they advocate the same power sharing which means
the Pakatan Harapan do it without based on the social contract. Meanwhile, when
touch about the multiracial as we know that, Malaysia has Chinese, Indian and Malay.
Malaysia has a population of 32.4 million. According to a 2018 estimate, 29 million are
citizens and 3.2 million are foreigners. This is means; of the citizens 20.7 million are
Bumiputera 6.69, million are Chinese, 2.01 million are Indians, and 290,000 others.
Therefore, from this statistic show, that Malaysia is multi – racial, multi religious and
multi-cultural has affected towards the identity of the politics in Malaysia.
In other hand, the politics in Malaysia are still relevant, which is without the identity of
the politics there is no way for our country to build until the country can be form to
stand well-being. Therefore, it is necessary for Bumiputeras and Muslims to have their
own political parties safeguard their interest and religion provided in the Federal
Constitution. It equally important for other citizens to have their own political parties,
also to protect their legitimate under an all citizen under political umbrella.
However, in a nut a shell there are things the citizens and the leaders of politic
need to be know which is Malaysia is a country with multi – racial. We know that Malay
which is Bumiputeras have their own privilege and this is would become the politics
challenges towards the leaders when other races questioning about the privilege.
Therefore, it can be said that the leaders of the country need to explain and embrace
all those question with the valid answer which is those statements can make our multi
– racial understand the Malaysia administration , rules and politics

Evaluation of Politic in Malaysia

The Malaysian politic is one of the most crucial part that need to be participate
by the whole people in the Malaysia in order to make sure there are the significant
about the bonding of the citizens and the leader of the Malaysia in terms of evaluating
the politics in Malaysia. As we know, that Malaysia has begun their power of
administration to embrace the new politics of deliberative democracy to the best way
to make citizens agree and acknowledge with all those improvement by the
government is by being fair with them.
After gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Malaysia has
pursued consociation democracy. Malaysia’s success as a nation depended on its
political stability and racial harmony, which encouraged the government to restrict civil
liberties like freedom of speech and political rights. However, national unity is an
elusive concept in order to evaluate the politics. A democracy takes consideration
“Malaysian facts,” or animosities of Malay – non – Malay. The democratic processes
of Malaysia must not jeopardize the fragile social ability, and political disputes are only
acceptable as long as stability is sustain. After Malaysia independence, there has been
a power sharing agreement. Although the coalition government of the Barisan nasional
(BN,National Front it is dominated by the United Malaysian National Organization
(UMNO) and the executive authority of Malaysia lies primarily with the Malaysian
leadership, other coalition partners, notably the non – Malaysian Chinese Association
(MCA) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), participate in the Cabinet. Moreover,
it have a degree of influence on government policy, in fact political stability needs
Malaysia.
However, with the new politics and the changes by government which Pakatan
Harapan our country, after returning to the Prime Minister's office in 2018, Mahathir
has become increasingly courageous over whether he will fulfill his pledge to hand
over the leadership to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in May 2020.
Therefore, the conclusion is centralizing power in the office of the prime minister
ensures that political stability is important both in Malaysia and in the international
relations of Malaysia. Mahathir would appoint Anwar as deputy prime minister as
quickly as possible and the administration's official number two, sending a powerful
signal to the world that the transition is on track.
THE CHALLENGES FOR NEW GOVERNMENT

As we know, since last General Election on 9 May 2018 Malaysia government have
won by Pakatan Harapan (PH) which last government is Barisan Nasional (BN).
Since returning to power in a shock election nearly a year ago, Malaysian Prime Mini
ster Mahathir Mohamad and his Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration have seen so
me success in terms of the reforms they are seeking to promote and wider change.
In the next 12 month, PH need to deal with several key issues in order for them to
change and reform an administration which are Bumiputera Agenda, the 1963
Malaysia Agreement, political Islam and timetable for transition of power. Each of
these issues are crucial to Malaysia’s political stabilities for long-term institutional
reforms. The country can easily get back to the old government if the new
administration are not well handle.
It is very important for PH momentum of political strategies are not stall. It is because
the issues that related to political is are for long term institutional reforms. As we know,
there are still many issues are not resolved as they take a many years to recover
because it is so hard to maintain it. These may leading to an increasingly dysfunctional
political system and in the change of government. PH government has much
opportunity to change Malaysia’s political challenges if it takes steps to resolve these
issues. PH may turn out to be a one-term government if the challenges are not being
handle properly because society has a right to set what kind of government they want
when it comes to who handled their country and nation.

 The Malay Agenda or Bumiputera Policy

At the time to the wealth imbalance between Malays also known as bumiputera with
non-Malays, the Malaysia government need to handle the challenges through the New
Economic Policy (NEP). There are two aim that have set NEP, which the first one is
the eradication of poverty and irrespective of race. The new government new bridge
the gap between the elites and the poor. In one country, there should not have any
terms such an elite’s society, middle society or poor society. Society need to be treat,
as they should be treated regardless incomes as Malaysia is a multiracial country. The
new government should make a way so that all people can reunited to make a new
country that have handle by new government. Such inequity has left Malaysian society
inherently unstable with an insignificant share of the economy is own by the
bumiputera, its largest ethnic group. These new reforms have aimed to give the Malay
community a minimum share of 30% across all economic and social spheres and to
ensure that the Malay community has represented in all occupational classes.

Since the implementation of the NEP, the Malaysian government has pumped
billions of dollars into the Malaysian economy in direct subsidies. The reasons are to
make Malay community to be more competitive and they are granted with other
advantages including the quotas in universities intakes and they even given a
scholarship if there are performing in the studies. There are also granted with
government contracts and procurement, business licenses and loans, employment in
the civil services and government-related entities and even discounts on a new houses
and dwelling. There opportunities can be called as Malay Agendas or bumiputera
policy. Some people might see this is so unfair to non-Malays, but the policies have
become so entrenched in the Malaysian system that they are considered as political
‘sacred cows’ that leading some to refer to the NEP as the ‘NEVER ENDING POLICY’.
The NEP are seen from two side of perspectives. The first one is there are those who
see positivity in the policy. They might believe that the direct government will
intervention in education that has helped to create a prosperous Malays professional
middle class as the evidence that there are large number of bumiputera professionals.
For example, in fields like accounting, law and engineering. Even though the second
perspective is more negative, the basis of the NEP’S push to empower the Malay
community economically through the creating of the Bumiputera Commercial and
Industrial Community (BCIC). Government relies on simplest ways to expand the
Malay share of the economy. While the privatisation process created instant
millionaires in the Malay community, it also produced some negative consequences.

 Political Islam

There are some people questioning the role of that Islam should play in Malaysian
political is not new. For the first three decades of independence, PAS was the mainstay
of political Islam in Malaysia. Since then, PAS has steadfastly called for the
establishment of an Islamic state in Malaysia. Past few years, there are new groups
began to challenge PAS’s version of Malaysia as an Islamic state. For example,
Malaysian Muslim Solidarity, Jemaah Islah Malaysia, the Association of Malaysia
Scholar and the Islamic Welfare and Missionary Association of Malaysia as well as
sections of PAS. There main reason for this forming group is to create a Malay-Islamic
state where Sunni Islam’s supremacy is fuse with Malay ethnicity and identity. There
is not much accidental about the expanding of political Islam, which came about
primarily few factors.

The first derived from the fierce political competition between UMNO and PAS
for the Malay vote. The two parties found Islam to be the most effective political tool
to get electoral support and mobilize the Malay polity — the ‘Malay vote’ became the
‘Islamic vote’. Both sides vied to be‘Islamic’, creating more hard-liner positions on
Islam, despite Malaysia’s multi-racial and multi-religious society. A reason why the
‘Islamic vote’ was so potent was the constitutional requirement that all ethnic Malays
are Muslim. The second factor was UMNO’s bureaucratization of Islam. It is to
demonstrate its true championship of Islam, UMNO’s Mahathir established the
Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) within the prime minister’s office.

A key consequence of JAKIM was a gradual revolution in the teaching of Islamic

theology in government schools. That teaching espouses a theology derived from the
Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia.
With stated factors produced a brand of intolerant Islam that promoted the narrative of
Muslims vs non-Muslims in Malaysia over the past three decades. The non-Muslim
population, especially the Christian community in Malaysia, feel they are under siege
by Islamists who are suspicious of anything they deem to be Christian. For example,
attempts made to stamp serial numbers on every Bahasa Indonesia bible imported
into Malaysia because of a fear that exposing Malays to Indonesian-language bibles
may lead them to apostasy.
 Politic Succession

During annual assembly of the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, Dr Mahathir has said
that he has agreed to be a “temporary” prime minister before General Election 14.
Although the two-year mark is still some time off, the stability of PH will hinge on the
relationship between Anwar Ibrahim and Dr Mahathir. Community will make their
speculation as the time is near and that will be a pressure to them as they need to
make sure what their promises have done. Some have seen this as a public assurance
by the prime minister in waiting to the elder statesman that he will follow Dr Mahathir’s
lead when dealing with issues relating to Singapore. Some people are seems to be
doubt that Dr Mahathir is keen to live up to his pre-election promises which he said
that he will hand over the seat to Anwar in next year as he is no longer want to take.
But there are worries about those within Mahathir’s party that are not as wedded to
the general idea as well as the specific timing of this. Insiders also fear that Anwar will
steer his country further down an Islamic path in a bid to win over the Malay-Muslim
vote in 2023, and that would upset some Malaysian states as well as minority Chinese
and Indians.
In the contemporary Malaysia, social media has been deemed by many as a
medium of change, discuss about cybertroopers and politics in Malaysia.

Cybertrooper is a person who is paid to disseminate political propaganda on

the internet, particularly on social media platforms. Social media played a role in the
state’s politics, but certain individuals can also misuse it by employing ‘cybertroopers’
to spread misinformation. Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh
Deo also had mentioned that he is aware of social media’s potential for misuse.

A recent study has found that Malaysia is among 70 countries that uses
cybertroopers to spread fake news. The study, titled 'Global Disinformation Order:
2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation', was conducted by the
Oxford Internet Institute and published on 26 September. It stated that Malaysia has
a "medium-capacity" cybertrooper team to mislead citizens on political issues. Citing
the study, The Star reported that Malaysia is estimated to have about 50 to 2,000
cybertroopers who undertook formal training to promote pro-government or pro-party
propaganda messages, attack the opposition in smear campaigns, and suppress
participation through personal attacks or harassment.

According to the study, these cybertroopers are full-time staff who are hired
year-round to control the information space. The cybertrooper accounts in Malaysia
are mainly fake bots found on Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Twitter. The study
analysed cybertrooper activities between 2010 to 2019 in 70 countries.

Taking example of UMNO party. Information gathered from various sources,

such as UMNO insiders, socio political bloggers and a lawyer involved in drafting an
agreement for some of the pro-UMNO bloggers to be employed as online writers,
represented anecdotal evidence about the different manner in which some of the pro-
UMNO bloggers were paid for their ghost-writing services. Some received monthly
allowance to produce articles for particular news portals, while some were given token
sums of money for producing specific postings published on UMNO websites. Others
had their daily expenses taken care of for their online postings services during election
period, yet others received payments from particular UMNO ministers to promote the
profiles of the paying leaders on their blogs or Facebook pages.
 It is difficult to verify the authenticity of payments made or the amount given to
cybertroopers for their online services. However, an outburst by former Prime Minister
Najib Razak at the UMNO assembly in November 2014 confirmed that some of the
bloggers paid by the party were instead attacking party leaders on their blogs. The
UMNO president was reported as saying that the bloggers in question should instead
attack the opposition because they knew who was paying them. Addressing the issue
of paid bloggers, current Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, noted, “I think it
is part of the system already. You get people who are very good at communicating.
You pay them to promote your cause. These are the people who must be paid because
they spend all their time doing that.”

Ahirudding Attan expressed similar concerns when he made the observation

that politicians would hijack or take over the use of blogs and social networking sites
and they would use money to pay or hire cyberwriters. He pointed that there was even
a proposal for the party to spend RM350 million to set up an outfit for social media to
counter the opposition in preparation for the 2018 general election. He said that “You
have bloggers, social media operators, who are hired to sit there and just do these
things like create 100 accounts and do stuffs with that. You do another 100 accounts,
make sure you have different IP addresses, making them look very systematic,
believable. But you cannot come up with profiles of genuine persons… It became a
political tool for the general election but not so much information for people to readily
believe in.” It is difficult to verify the amount of money spent to hire online ghost-writers;
however, information revealed by a pro-UMNO blogger, who wanted to remain
anonymous, provided some insights into the sums of money involved.

He indicated that he received a “good deal” from UMNO to produce creative

inputs on the party’s activities. Part of the funding was to create an online news portal
in 2010, which was specifically set up for the general election. The pro-UMNO blogger
revealed that it cost between RM10,000 and RM15,000 a month to run the news portal.
Based on a conservative calculation of thirty-six month or three years of operation, the
expenditure for this one known project would be between RM360,000 and RM540,000.
Based on this estimate it may not be too far-fetched to assume that money spent online
in preparation for the political battle could run into millions of ringgits. This seems to
justify the remark that there is “a pot of gold” to be made online for some socio-political
bloggers.
 Another example is the Red Bean Army. The DAP coalition was not spared
from speculation that they had their own version of cybertroopers, particularly in the
form of the Red Bean Army. The DAP was put in a defensive position as they had to
issue numerous statements to counter the allegation that first surfaced in April 2013.
A speculative piece about the existence of the Red Bean Army first appeared in UMNO
blog, MyKMU.net, on 30 April 2013.

The blog postings presented a list of 185 Facebook accounts that were said to
be part of the Red Bean Army. Two days later, UMNO-linked newspaper Utusan
Melayu published a similar article on its online news site. Other pro-UMNO blogs also
posted similar speculative pieces to keep the issue alive. A day later, former DAP
Youth Leader, Shen Yee Aun, who claimed the existence of the Red Bean Army, also
made its way into Utusan Online. The speculation was kept alive even after the
election.

The Malay Daily claimed that the DAP paid RM3000 a month for the party’s
expenditure for the service of 200 cyberwriters over six years that the party’s
expenditure for the Red Bean Army was about RM1.5 million a month. The DAP
dismissed the allegations, saying that the overall expenditure would work out to be
about RM108 million, which the party could ill afford. Although the Communications
and Multimedia Ministry admitted, that it was unable to identify the Red Bean Army
cybertroopers, the allegation continued to feature in pro-UMNO blogs and UMNO-
owned newspapers.

Example of a cybertrooper

A civil society blogger, revealed that politically connected individuals had

offered to pay her to publish biased material on her blog. Elaborating on the incident
when the offer was made, she said,

“The deal was to put vicious comments and at one point they wanted me to
slander people anonymously. I would say two or three people approached me to do
that. These are people with political parties. This was just before the general election.
If I had agreed, I would be paid more than RM5000 a month. I would have to pay for
my own expenses for the running around like pay for my own petrol. I did not take up
the offer. The only thing I would agree to do was to set up portals and write based on
facts. We could not agree on the terms. Anonymous comments to attack people are
still okay but to slander people or insinuate half-truths are too down low.” Such offers
demonstrate that there could be some factual basis to the suspicion that ostensibly
“independent” bloggers were paid to further the agenda of their political paymasters.

The existence of technologies has brought digital media into Malaysia that
provide the availability of the borderless world of communication networks that have
formed challenge and news issues of influx of data and information. The 14th General
Election (GE14) has been seen as the “Social Media Election” that political campaigns
were likely to rage online more intensely than ever before. It became an issue of fake
news in social media that can threat the fairness of the campaign process. Facebook
and WhatsApp can manipulate the information to create fake.

To summarize, two things are apparent here. Firstly, money does change
hands between bloggers or social media operators and their paymasters, but it is
difficult to say for certain who the paymasters are and how much money is spent in
the online battle. Secondly, it would seem that the coalition with a “deeper pocket”
could well have a “bigger online presence” to sway the voting public.
 CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, cybertroopers is common during political elections. Its

used as a strategic to boost up their political image on social media so that it
will influence to voters to vote for them. Politics also the activities associated
with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties
having power. In modern nation states, people often form political parties to
represent their ideas. Members of a party agree to take the same position on
many issues and agree to support the same changes to law and the same
leaders.