Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi wants the Umno and BN election machinery to optimise the use of social media to win the hearts and minds of the voters, especially young voters in the coming general elections.

Zahid, who is executing the duties of the Umno deputy president, said the approach was necessary as social media was very influential in shaping the perception of voters as well as influencing the way they make decisions. 

Furthermore, he said social media was also widely used with up to 82 percent of information and news to voters being conveyed via social media.

“Pistols or other weapons cannot be used to win hearts and minds (of voters). Sharp weapons can only be found at the tip of the fingers and we must use them,” he said when opening the Sabah Umno Social Media Convention in Kota Kinabalu today.

Also present were Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, who is also Sabah Umno liaison chief, Sabah Umno secretary Yahya Hussin and Umno information technology bureau chairperson Ahmad Maslan.

Taking a lesson from the 12th and 13th general elections, Ahmad Zahid said the BN government was almost defeated in these two previous polls due to the inability of the Umno and BN election machinery to fend off slander and false information that were widely disseminated by the opposition parties via social media.

He said as a result, it created a negative perception of the government by giving the impression that such defamatory and false news were true.

Zahid said because of the failure to fend off these defamatory and fake news , the government was punished by public opinion.

Hence, he said the Umno and BN election machinery should address all slander and fake news from opposition parties by using the social media platform to ensure that Umno and BN’s social media failure in the last election was not repeated.

However, he said, unlike opposition parties, Umno would not use social media to spread lies and fake news and instead would use facts that were true and authentic for the people to discern.

Zahid also commended the Sabah Umno IT bureau, which he described as among the best among state Umno bureaus.

- Bernama