PM Admits It Was A Mistake To Ignore The Internet In Recent Elections

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Malaysia's prime minister admitted Tuesday (25 Mar) that his ruling coalition made a blunder by underestimating the power of the Internet, which the opposition used extensively to win a record number of seats in recent elections.

"In the last election, we certainly lost the Internet war, the cyber war," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told an investors' conference.

He said it was "a serious misjudgment" on the part of the ruling National Front coalition to rely solely on government-controlled newspapers and television while the opposition wooed young voters with cell phone text messages and blogs.

The coalition retained power but lost its traditional-two thirds parliamentary majority. The opposition increased the number of seats it holds from 19 to 82 in the 222-member Parliament and won five state legislatures.

It was the worst setback in the coalition's 51-year rule, despite spending millions of ringgit (dollars; euros) on print and television advertisements during its election campaign.

"It was a very, very serious mistake on our part. It was painful ... but it came at the right time, not too late," Abdullah said.

Denied fair access to government-controlled media, opposition parties turned to the Internet to talk about rising prices, corruption and racial and religious tensions _ subjects that struck a chord with disgruntled Malaysians who were also fuming at the partisan coverage of the mainstream media.

The government does not censor or control the Internet under a commitment made by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad when he was wooing foreign investors into high tech industries in the early 1990s.

However, worries about online freedom mounted last year when a government-linked newspaper filed defamation lawsuits against two prominent bloggers accusing them of posting libelous statements about the paper's editors and executives. Separately, the government also accused bloggers of spreading lies and undermining public stability.

Also last year, police detained an opposition party blogger for five days over comments posted on his Web site linking a deputy minister to corruption.

Following the election debacle, Abdullah's government softened its stance. New Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek promised last week not to impose curbs on bloggers. A prominent blogger, Jeff Ooi, won a parliamentary seat for the opposition Democratic Action Party. (By EILEEN NG/ AP)