Othman (2011)
shows those youths are the major users of the Internet, which is due to the
existing social media sites. This is further supported by Hui (2010), who
stated that 83% of all Facebook users in Malaysia are the youths. This can be a
serious problem as social media nowadays are flooded with negative information.
In Malaysia, there are a lot of news and comments about Malaysia government on
the social media platform. Some of the news is beneficial as they have shown
the side which government tried to hide but actually ought to be known by the
public. However, the presence of exaggerated comments and destructive
criticisms of the government has outweighed all the benefits brought about. Although
these slandering posts are actually based on the facts, the way the politicians
interpret them contains a lot more stereotyping and actually shows their
underlying propaganda, and thus it is misleading.
Youths
consist of 40% of the overall Malaysian population (Economic Planning Unit,
2010). This indicates that youths, who will determine Malaysia’s future
development, account for the biggest age group in the country. Youths are the
future of a country. Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir Mohammad
suggested that “The internet is not the free alternative to the
state-controlled print and electronic media it is touted to be. It is subject
to even more censorship than Governments could exercise. The people who [host]
these platforms and servers can censor. And various other means are
available to the powerful controllers of the new media for them to censor in
the interest of their politics” on August, 2014, through his blog (Advocacy,
2014). This suggested that the social media platform could be exploited by
politicians can exploit social media platform to misguide and shape the thinking
of the social media users, specially the youths that are not mature enough to discern
or filtrate the information. This is extremely important as youths are the
pillars of a country. If they are misguided, the future of that country will be
undermined.
To prevent
the proliferation of misleading information, the Malaysia government has been
implementing some policies, such as censoring negative social media pages and
putting the site moderators on trial. However, this does not seem to be
effective as the social media that are commonly and frequently used to spread
the fabricated are the sites that are taking a great part of people lives, for
example, Facebook and Twitter. Censoring these sites has become impossible as it incurs the
wrath of the public. The only solution the government can resort to is shutting
down spreading groups and arresting people who had initiated it, but there are
always new upcoming groups and people who turn the government’s censorship into
a wasted effort.
The failure
is similar to the failure in China’s censorship. The China’s Government has
been making effort to remove any online material related to terrorism, violence
and pornography. (Tiezzi, 2015). There is a huge reaction among China citizens
and they have successfully sorted out ways to re-establish the sites that had
been removed. It is, therefore, undeniable that censorship on social media
sites is not only unsuccessful but also it will result in
conflicts between citizens and the government.
In order to prevent the youths from being
misguided, but at the same time not to induce condemnatory response from the
public, Ministry of Education Malaysia can focus on educating the youths as they
are the only and main target. Education is a very effective way as those who
are equipped with adequate knowledge can exercise their critical thinking
better, and thus use social media more wisely. For lower education levels, the
authority has the responsibility to introduce more background knowledge
regarding the political situation of Malaysia. This is to provide a knowledge
basis for the youths to think, discern and filer information related to Malaysian
politics. Youths should possess the ability to analyze information that is provided
to them before accepting it. General knowledge should be incorporated into
teaching materials, and campaigns should be organized in order to raise the
awareness among the youths.
While social
media platforms continue to be the main source of propaganda, the most
effective way to counter it is to post information about how this information
will affect the youths’ mind and mental growth, and how a make-up of a future
adult will be affected on social media too. Youths may ignore or become
distracted or not pay attention when this information is being given in school
lessons or campaigns, but not on social media. Youths tend to pay more
attention to content posted on social media; therefore online campaign will be a
better solution to convey the messages to them.
In
conclusion, youths are the future make-up of a country, and anything that might
affect youths negatively should never be neglected as they will influence the
country’s future construct. Authorities should consistently examine implemented
policies and come up with the most effective solutions. “The first step towards
getting somewhere is to decide you are not going to stay where you
are.”—J.P.Morgan.
(846 words)
References:
Economic Planning Unit, Prime Minister Department.
(2010). Population by sex, ethnic group and age, Malaysia, 2010. Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia: n. a.. Retrieved March 6, 2012, from http://www.epu.gov.my
Hui, L. Y. (2010). Fastest growing Asian countries
in Facebook. Grey Review: The Social Web Journal. Retrieved from http://www.greyreview.com/2010/06/02/fastest-growing-asian-countries-on-facebook/
Mong
Palatino (2014). Malaysia’s Longest Serving PM Repeats Call to Censor the
Internet Malaysia’s Longest Serving PM Repeats Call to Censor the Internet .
Retrieved from http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/08/05/malaysias-longest-serving-pm-repeats-call-to-censor-the-internet/
Othman,
Z. (August 11, 2011). The power of social networking. Bernama Blis.
Retrieved from http://blis2.bernama.com
Tiezzi
, S. (2015). Why China's defense of Internet censorship falls flat. The
Diplomat. Retrieved from
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/why-chinas-defense-of-internet-censorship-falls-flat/
No comments:
Post a Comment