ANALYSIS The Internet was a major factor behind Barisan Nasional’s worst showing at the ballot box in March 2008, with even former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi conceding that BN had “lost the Internet war”.

At the same time, issues like the National Higher Education Corporation Fund (PTPTN) and the Universities and University Colleges Act have been turning off the ever-growing number of young voters who populate Malaysian cyberspace.

So it came as no surprise when the ruling coalition rolled out the BN Youth Volunteers (BNYV) initiative last month to recruit young volunteers to the BN cause, and bolster its online machinery.

An online army

According to the BNYV Facebook page , the main duties of volunteers are event management, social media outreach and door-to-door campaigning before the general election.

NONE A recruitment video depicting BNYV boss Khairy Jamaluddin pitching the programme amidst a ‘youthful’ backdrop was released earlier this month, and gives a glimpse of the kind of role the campaign is seeking from its volunteers.

Amateur camera work can be discerned in the volunteer-made video , which also lacks in audio quality. However, it represents the campaign’s aim - direct contribution with no frills and no party membership required.

“He (the video creator) just came by one day and volunteered to do it,” said the BN and Umno Youth chief of the “shy” volunteer, who did not want to be named.

All three youth leaders contacted by Malaysiakini highlighted this openness as a significant strength of the BNYV initiative, and one that they are picking from the opposition’s playbook.

“Why can PAS or PKR more easily accept professionals? It is because they have no party structure, unlike Umno.

“Now, we have created a space to contribute, even at a national level. It’s not closed any more, no need for a party post and so on,” said Umno Youth exco member Lokman Adam.

NONE Lokman ( centre in photo ), who is chairperson of the BN Youth Pidato (Oratory) unit, cited his own division as a perfect example of the opportunities that BNYV affords volunteers.

With the unit due to kick off a series of nationwide ceramah sessions, volunteers will have the chance to manage and organise the events, and even pitch BN policies to their own peers.

“They (volunteers) might not like Umno for instance, but might want to help the BN,” said MIC Youth chief T Mohan, adding that it was also a great way for party members to aid the coalition directly, even if they disliked the other component parties.

“It’s all part of our efforts to leverage the social media. We are looking for creative people, people to work in creative content, videos, photography, analysis,” said Khairy.

They have already begun mobilising on the ground, with a recent walkabout session with Bangsar residents and a ‘TweetUp’ session with Khairy himself at Jalan Ampang.

Taking hold of online conversation

Khairy declined to reveal in detail the volunteers’ roles during campaign time, opting to keep his cards close to his chest.

However, the main emphasis of the movement seems to be turning around the online political conversation, judging by his speech to volunteers at a BNYV training workshop last Sunday.

NONE Calling on the volunteers to be “informed” about the issues they choose to engage people on, he tasked them with aggressively pushing BN’s message online.

“If you repeat something 1,000 times, people will believe it. If you say the sky is red 1,000 times, people will go outside and look at the sky,” he stressed to the volunteers at the Putra World Trade Centre.

By flooding cyberspace with information, no room would be left for the opposition’s claims, he said.

In fact, the coalition is already seeing the benefits of its outreach, as it has enlisted 500 good volunteers out of 1,000 applications for the BNYV programme, Khairy said.

He described BN as having “good coverage” online, but added that they would continue to improve their “delivery” by training their volunteers and having them network extensively with their peers and other leaders.

Lokman also agreed that BN had gained ground online, saying, “Previously, many allegations by the opposition went unanswered. Now the tables have been turned."

Real world, too

It is not just BNYV that has mobilised - the main BN machinery seems to have begun moving both on and offline.

NONE The official BN website, for one, has been revamped with a more modern, colourful look in an attempt to put a fresh spin on the coalition’s image.

Khairy, along with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, seem to be leading the charge on Twitter , as they are regularly the most mentioned politicians and have among the greatest number of followers on Twitter , according to social media analysis site Politweet .

The BN leaders seem to have recognised the importance of connecting to the online crowd socially, rather than just talking politics all the time. Khairy, for instance, has been tweeting frequently about football.

Najib has also focused on engaging youths in addition to constantly updating his Facebook and Twitter pages, taking pains to attend youth-related events like the annual Hari Belia celebrations in Putrajaya, and a recent TwtUpKami event at Stadium Bukit Jalil.

Even BN and Umno Youth have been working on improving their image, attempting to rebrand as a solutions-oriented group rather than simply a loud, vocal one.

NONE Along with the BN Youth Lab, the coalition has been hosting several youth ‘town hall’ sessions in a bid to solicit youth-focused feedback from the ground.

The lab distributes questionnaires to determine the problems that ‘trend’ among youths, and then initiate programmes to remedy them.

One product of this effort was a housing scheme, where youths can borrow the deposits to buy houses, according to Lokman, who called this a “new youth culture”.

This, he said, is part of BN and Umno Youth’s efforts to change how the public perceives them; rather than shouting about the problem, they want to be part of the solution.

“If previously the youth wing was more of a very vocal pressure group, during Ghafar Baba’s time for instance, now we want to be problem-solvers instead,” Lokman added.

Tomorrow: ‘BN strikes back on Twitterjaya’