Tg Piai loss shows gov’t media failing to retaliate attacks on Harapan
The government media has failed to adequately retaliate against issues being used to attack the federal government, as indirectly indicated by Pakatan Harapan’s trouncing in Tanjung Piai polls by disgruntled voters.
According to Ilham Centre head of research Mohd Yusri Ibrahim, this gave the impression that the ruling coalition lacked an effective mechanism to counter attacks from the opposition or other media...
The government media has failed to adequately retaliate against issues being used to attack the federal government, as indirectly indicated by Pakatan Harapan’s trouncing in Tanjung Piai polls by disgruntled voters.
According to Ilham Centre head of research Mohd Yusri Ibrahim, this gave the impression that the ruling coalition lacked an effective mechanism to counter attacks from the opposition or other media.
“It is as though the Harapan government had no effective mechanism to tackle any negative perception released by the opposition.
“There is no counter by government media to any of the issues.
“What I am saying is, it is as though the Harapan government had lost the perception (game) to the opposition. The opposition had manipulated many issues on social media and others.
“The government’s responses on government media such as RTM is not powerful enough to conquer attacks through other media,” he said to reporters following a post-Tanjung Piai seminar held at University Malaya (UM), in Petaling Jaya today.
Aside from RTM, other government media include Bernama.
In the Nov 16 by-election, Harapan lost the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat to BN by over 15,000 votes, the worst election defeat for the coalition since winning the GE14 last year.
MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng garnered a lion’s share of 25,466 votes while Bersatu’s Karmaine Sardini only obtained 10,380 votes.
According to Yusri, among the main reasons for the voters’ dissatisfaction were the government’s failure to fulfil manifesto promises, especially pertaining to matters which directly affected them.
This included matters such as cost of living and National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan repayments.
On top of that were issues concerning Malay-Muslims which the government did not respond adequately to, he claimed.
“So...popularity plummets. Issues were not responded to well. So the voters, the rakyat, are left in the lurch and dissatisfied on many of these issues.
“That then translated to the Tanjung Piai by-election,” he said.
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