Understand 'Our Language', anyone?

A few days back, when I was flipping the newspaper, I came across one article which was well articulated by one of Malaysian renowned writers. The piece appeared in the op-ed column.

Before I go any further, I really feel the need to compliment the writer for articulating compelling thoughts, for being bold and in short, for being the voice for the youths. To me, it isot easy to get such ideas printed in the mainstream paper. But this time around, I believed that the paper has challenged its traditional policy and I musy say, BRAVO!

During the general election last year, Barisan Nasional (BN) was devastated due to the results- they lost five states to the opposition parties, Pakatan Rakyat (comprises of PAS, DAP and PKR). Although it went way out of what was expected by the ruling leaders at that time, but this is what we call as democracy. The people has that very power and right in the electoral system.

When we talk about the people who are largely the voters, we are not merely pointing to the middle age and the older ones. Indeed, the young voters should be in the central of concern as they are the rising generation who will replace the elders. Wecare the buzzword. So count us in.

It is important for BN and especially UMNO to realize that the youths are heavy media users. Unlike those in their middle age and the older voters, they largely depend merely on the mainstream media (newspapers, TV and radio), the youths are very fond of the new media and it is undoubtedly true that the Internet has been playing its pervasive role in changing the atitude, mind-set and moulding their beliefs.

With the existence of new media, the media users, especially those who are technology-savvies are no longer mere media users, but they have been categorized as the active media users instead. Active media users get all kinds of information they ever needed through the heterogeneous means of comunication. The new media has made information availability ubiquitous and know-no-boundaries.

And it is pivotal to note that active media users will not blatantly accept news and information fed by the mainstream media as they are all alerted with the role of agenda-setting in the news organizations, regardless of how much the traditional media prove themselves to be objective and fair. Being the 'neutral party' is still way out of the picture as the people knew for sure that almost all newspapers in the country belong to specific political parties whereas they should be 'free from any influences'.

As the active media users, the youths have more than the mainstream media as their information providers. Indeed, provided the political contidion in the country, they have tremendously switched from the mainstream media to the alternative media. But, it does not mean that the mainstream media has been abandoned by the youths. It is just that they demand for more transparency throughout the political practices and the media activities alike.

It is inevitably true that the new media, especially the Internet has filled that 'empty hole'. The quest for freedom of information is on the march. While freedom can bring about undesirable outcomes that would likely to threatened the political stability and uniformity of the people, freedom is also a remedy to anticipating the efforts to avoid disputes in the society.

It is important to understand the difference between 'absolute freedom' and the notion of being a little bit more lenient by putting forth the freedom. The people are not demanding for the former as they can totally understand the consequences, but transparency is the buzzword here. Freedom of information is much needed to pacify the situation we have in our hands now.

Some hidebound people tend to point their fingers blaming the media for being the causal factor. They wrongly analyzed that the ruling government is giving too much leeway for the media practitioners to make their own decisions using their autonomy. But honestly I personally see and can still feel that our media are lacking in freedom to impart information, let alone the issue on autonomous power. What we have here is very much a guarded and guided media.

The new lineup should be abe to recognize the pivotal role of new media and its pervasive influence in reaching the youths out there. They cannot depend solely o the mainstream media because hefty reseaches have proven that the youths are the information technoloy geneation. BN should utilise the wide wings of new media in bringing their vision and mission closer to the people. The alternative media is gaining its momentum tremendously. Some observers believed that the alternative media is the new mainstream media.