PETALING JAYA, March 20 — No party or organisation should manipulate or breach Malaysians’ freedom to make a conscientious decision when voting, electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 acting-chairman Shahrul Aman Mohd Saari said today.
Following revelations of the alleged involvement of British data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) in influencing Malaysia’s 2013 general election, Shahrul said such an act is deemed an invasion of privacy and creates an unfair advantage that sees the masses being fed one-sided information.
“The data would mean they could feed their target audience only certain information or even deny them the news they sorely need to know.
“Such practices robbed the masses from making an informed decision to vote for the party they deem fit.
“For democracy to work, we need an informed electorate who are aware of the facts,” he added.
The firm allegedly collected huge amounts of personal data on voters from social media about their personal preferences from food to political leanings to form “psychographic” profiles which they then used to formulate campaigns for their clients.
Shahrul also urged politicians to focus on challenges faced by the public and discuss credible solutions rather than rely on political rhetoric.
“Focus on the issues at hand or even debate the content of your political manifesto. This is what the masses should base their confidence on.
“I urge politicians to avoid using racial or religious rhetoric, demonising different parties just to spur an emotional response from the voter base,” he said.
Shahrul also said that illegal or unethical psychographic profiling is an electoral offence and urged the public to inform Bersih 2.0.
CA reportedly assisted Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential campaign and the British referendum to exit the European Union that same year.
Former Barisan Nasional leaders Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir have since claimed they were unaware of the firm’s involvement here.
