Who are most critical of Najib? Twitter analysis points to young BM speakers

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — Young Malaysians speaking in the national language have emerged as the demographic group most critical of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s leadership in the wake of the “Nothing2Hide” forum fiasco this month, a recent social media research study showed.

Politweet ran an analysis of 1,000 Malaysia-based Twitter users who tweeted about the event between June 5 and 8 and found a whopping 95.5 per cent or 955 were negative responses towards the prime minister who didn’t show up for the public dialogue.

Of the total responses, the Twitter study found that 67 per cent or two-thirds were written in Bahasa Malaysia. It categorised 25 per cent as English speakers while the remaining 8 per cent were said to be bilingual.

“With 67 per cent of the sample being Bahasa Malaysia speakers and 30.55 per cent of them choosing to voice their disapproval directly to the PM, the message here is that young Bahasa Malaysia speakers are not afraid to criticise the PM openly in large numbers,” Politweet said in a statement to Malay Mail Online.

The analysis, which was conducted solely on Malaysia-based Twitter users and not Facebookers, also found that Bahasa Malaysia speakers were more likely to direct their disapproval towards the PM compared to the other speakers.

Some even used foul language to get their point across.

“The high degree of profanity and personal insults imply they no longer respect the PM,” Politweet added.

The negative responses by Twitter users largely comprised of insults and people poking fun of Najib indirectly by referencing his name with terms and monikers like ‘Jibby’, Politweet said.

There were also users who tweeted remarks directly to Najib on Twitter, which the research firm noted came “with a higher incidence of foul language and name-calling”.

“By tagging the PM publicly these users showed that they were not concerned about the PM reading their tweets,” Politweet said.

The social media research firm also said that other common types of remarks included “PM Najib must resign”, “I am ashamed of this country/ our PM” and “Shame on you”.

Many Twitter users also demanded an explanation on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy.

In comparison, English speakers (22.31 per cent) and bilingual speakers (21.79 per cent) posted negative tweets about Najib.

The analysis, however, was not able to correlate language to ethnic community.

Politweet said its analysis indicates that the overwhelming majority of Twitter users in Malaysia disapproved of the prime minister’s absence from the event, and credited three main factors which influenced users to voice negative opinions against Najib.

The three factors were Najib’s claim on Twitter that he had “darah pahlawan” (warrior’s blood) on the night before the “Nothing2Hide” forum on June 5, and his subsequent absence at the event.

The other contributing factor to the Twitter backlash against Najib was due to the police’s rough handling of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was barred from finishing his speech at the event.

The same analysis found that only 2 per cent or 20 of the 1,000 Twitter users were supportive of Najib’s decision to skip the forum, while 2.5 percent or 25 users remained neutral.

“Our goal was to gauge the response by users in Malaysia to the Prime Minister not showing up at the event.

“We focused our analysis on their opinion of the PM and their general response to his absence at the event,” Politweet said, adding that opinions about Dr Mahathir were not included as part of the detailed analysis.

The “Nothing2Hide” forum was anticipated as a face-off between Najib and his chief critic Dr Mahathir, but was ordered to be aborted at the last minute by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to preserve “public order”.

The Prime Minister’s Office later attributed Najib’s absence at the forum to the police’s advice and instruction over security concerns.

Critics have since condemned the police for disrupting and cancelling the event, saying that the authorities were aiming to silence public discussions on government scandals and literally save Najib from a humiliating confrontation with Dr Mahathir over 1MDB.

Organiser SukaGuam said the police ordered the event cancelled due to the group’s inability to handle the large number of attendees, while the IGP also denied that the cancellation was politically motivated.