Jeff Ooi - from digital to political clout?

Blogger Ahiruddin ‘Rocky’ Atan sees a revolution coming if fellow-netizen Jeff Ooi is voted into Parliament.

In Penang yesterday for the launch of Ooi’s book, ‘i-Witness’, Rocky told the crowd: “Jeff has shown the way in the Malaysian blogosphere for many years. I don’t think he’ll have any problems showing how politics should be played in Penang or in Malaysia.”

In the book a compilation of his columns on new media and technology, Ooi, 52, writes that he ventured into the blogosphere five years ago to find out just how contagious the Internet can be.

Ooi has made a name for himself among Malaysians who look to the Internet for information on current events and hot-button issues. His blog, Screenshots, attracts more than 13,000 unique visitors a day.

But in the paraliamentary constituency of Jelutong, the DAP newbie will fight it out with Gerakan’s Dr Thor Teong Gee and Independent Badrul Zaman for votes.

Jelutong’s history of being ‘anti-establishment’ may work well for Ooi. DAP chairperson Karpal Singh held the seat for several terms before losing out to Gerakan in 1999.

To many older-generation residents, though, Ooi of the Klang Valley is an ‘unknown’, or worse, an ‘outsider’. And he will have to find a way to transfer his digital clout to a mainly non-digital crowd.

“It’s a little bit of a setback because people here are not that computer savvy,” acknowledged his campaign manager Teng Kah Nyean.

At a DAP event on Sunday evening, a sales manager who only wanted to be known as Lim said his daughter, who is in her twenties, frequently reads blogs but that he is not familiar with these himself.

Lim said that, with limited access to the web, older Penangites have few opportunities to become acquainted with online personalities.

A 2006 Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission survey stated that Internet use is highest among Malaysians who are under 35.

But, referencing 2004 data, Ooi said only 16 percent of the Jelutong voters fall into that category - almost half are between 35 and 55.

“I’m very aware of the demographics. They show the overall constituency is aging,” he said. “(But) I’m looking at the longer term.”

Younger voters may be scarce, he said, but their presence is growing. In search of more affordable real estate, clusters of ‘knowledge workers’ and engineers from free trade zones have been moving into the area .

“We are looking at the bigger battle (to come) in 2013. We hope there will be new voters registering in this constituency and I want to make a presence now,” said Ooi, explaining the DAP’s outlook.

Aspiration for change

As a technology columnist, Ooi has monitored the unfolding of the economic narrative in Penang. But his interest is more personal than that - his family moved to Butterworth in the 1980s and his mother and brothers still live in the state.

Compared to other major industrialised cities, Penang is not faring well, he said. Not only has the economy stagnated, but major companies that bring innovation and revenue, like Intel and Taiwan-based Inventec, have fled the state to greener pastures.

Singapore has moved up the value-chain from labour-intensive industries to knowledge-intensive industries, like intellectual property and research and development. Penang has not evolved beyond 35-year-old assembly-based industries and “has to get away from this model”.

He said voters recognise that the quality of life in Penang is declining and are ready for something new.

“The sentiment, the aspiration for change is escalating,” Ooi declared the day he filed his nomination papers.

“I hope to create history in Malaysia, if not in the world. I want (voters) to understand the importance of putting a blogger into Parliament so that he can speak up on things he knows about.”

For the past five years, Ooi’s blog has enabled him to breathe life into his belief in ‘collective intelligence’. It’s allowed him to push through the racial divide and new frontiers to ‘penetrate peoples’ minds’.

His run for the parliamentary seat, he said, is an extension of this.

“I want more people to get to be the stakeholders,” he said.

With other DAP contenders and volunteers, he has been on a ‘whisper campaign’ that also listens to concerns about the economy. In the evenings, he goes house-to-house and, at night, attends ceramah .

His blog - no longer just a clearinghouse for ideas - has become a vehicle for volunteerism, with Malaysians around the world making online donations to help fund the pioneering campaign. As at Feb 25, he had raised RM64,000 of his RM100,000 target.

At his book launch, Rocky and bloggers Tony Yew and Zorro (Bernard Khoo) presented Ooi with an additional RM3,000, including RM2,000 from lawyer-cum-blogger Haris Ibrahim.