KUALA LUMPUR – During the Melaka elections last year, Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) campaign messaging consisted mostly of religion and race, according to Pusat Komas’ Malaysia Racial Discrimination Report 2021.
The report noted that PN’s communication strategy during the polls saw 56% of its messaging focus on race and religion.
“The coalition promoted candidates based on religious factors and called for unity of the religious community.
“Additionally, the issue of Timah and Kedah 4D ban was part of the communication strategy by PAS, with PAS defending their actions by claiming that both alcohol and gambling are prohibited by other religions,” the report said.
Meanwhile, following not too far behind is Pakatan Harapan (PH), which saw 39% of their messaging focus on race and religion.
However, most of the opposition coalition’s messaging was focused on condemning Barisan Nasional, Umno, and PN as corrupt parties.
According to the report, PH also mentioned that certain actions by PN and BN suggest that they are neglecting the rights and benefits of the non-Bumiputera community.
With regards to BN, 54% of the coalition’s messaging concerned politics, while 25% concerned race, and 21% focused on the economy.
“Race and religion accounted for 25% of BN’s communication strategy, where most of the messages were used to attack PH for being hypocritical in promoting a Malaysia for all Malaysians,” the report added.
Meanwhile, social media comments by the general public over the Melaka elections also appear concerning, with conversations over race and religion dwarfing issues such as the pandemic.
Following the report, race and religion saw 12,800 mentions, while discussions on the Covid-19 pandemic saw 7,400 mentions.
It is also revealed that social media conversations regarding race and religion centred around race-based policies garnered 531,000 engagements, while religious provocations saw 471,000 engagements, and racial and religious exchanges recorded 120,000 engagements.
Topics concerning Bumiputera-oriented policies and education policies related to the national language were racialised and used during the Melaka polls, according to Pusat Komas' report.
However, besides conversations on racial policies, the report also saw netizens engaging in racial and religious exchanges that sometimes contained slurs.
“The general public was also found to engage in racial and religious conversations in social media during the state elections.
“Some messages were anti-racist where netizens called out racist or racially discriminatory behaviour of politicians and political parties.
“Others were explicitly racist, containing racist slurs and speaking in a hostile manner about other races," the report added. – The Vibes, March 22, 2022
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