FEBRUARY 3 — I laugh sometimes when people go on a self-righteous preachy streak about social media.
Without social media, many of us (myself included) would have been doomed to obscurity with challenges to government decisions and inaction relegated to mere kopitiam talk.
Earlier this week, there were loud voices protesting the selection of politicians and those with political ties as award recipients.
It is as it should be — should we not question the criteria behind such honours and whether they are politically motivated?
In the days before social media at most there would be some buzz in certain circles while the media would quietly report the list of award recipients, and publish the usual congratulatory advertisements.
Beyond awards, social media has become a platform for self-expression and a place for citizens to ask to be heard.
Never mind that at times our leaders choose selective deafness.
The government’s recently-announced food basket initiative is a terrible one, as can be evidenced by the UK government’s own attempt at giving out food hampers instead of vouchers.
Of course the company contracted chose to skimp on the contents with mediocre food so they could pocket the profits.
What guarantee do we have the same would not happen with our baskets?
Rather than food baskets, the B40 would likely just prefer to be given money.
The rice initiative is useful, similar to an idea I’d mooted in a previous column — make sure Malaysians are given a certain amount of subsidised basic foodstuff.
Yet I question the emphasis on giving aid to citizens in the federal territory first.
Why can’t the rice initiative be initiated on the national level, considering Perikatan Nasional has worked so hard at wresting control of most of the states in Malaysia?
The control, tenuous as it might be, should give the government more power to implement various welfare initiatives.
Instead, we have chief ministers unilaterally deciding Indians in their state don’t deserve to get a holiday for Thaipusam.
Over the one year we’ve been dealing with the pandemic, it has never been clearer that the government is running the country like a teenager fresh off getting a learner’s driver license.
“Why is he/she minister of ‘insert ministry here’ again?” seems to be an oft-asked question, to which we know the answer is “political expediency.”
I fear the only way we get some things moving in this country is by shouting a lot online because otherwise, some politicians would actually believe the results of questionable polls about their approval ratings.
While it is too easy to harness social media for harm, as Facebook keeps demonstrating with zero remorse, it is up to us, however, to use it as one way (among many) to hold the government to account.
“Proper channels” do not exist, have never existed, and are just an excuse to keep the population biddable.
It is important for Malaysians to be reminded, constantly, that it is their voices that matter and not their obedience.
Until it comes time to express ourselves via the ballot box, we really don’t have any other means do we? And that is perhaps the innate tragedy of it all. To be beholden to technology we do not own, that profits off our personal information by selling it to the highest bidder, to seek to redress injustices.
It is high time we rethink the ethics of the internet and Big Tech, but for now, let’s use it for good.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
