Jeff Ooi joining DAP: Parlimentarian in the making?
Although I have said that Jeff Ooi’s joining any party would be a tremendous boost to the party, making it to the Parliment would be a different ball game altogether. Jeff’s case is unique in that he is long a popular blogger before he joins DAP.
On the controrary, Lim Kit Siang, Ronnie Liu, Anwar Ibrahim, and Tian Chua, just to name a few, are all seasoned politicans before they embrace blogging as alternative communication media, but this is no coincidence as the mainstream media are tightly controlled by the Government.
On the other side of the fence, you will notice, only Datuk Shahrir Samad has his own blog, which I think is rather unfortunate due to the fact that Malaysian Government spent millions of dollars promoting IT. Not that having own blogs would mean the politicians are IT savvy but it just to show that you walk your own talk. But then, if you look carefully Datuk Shahrir is no ordinary UMNO politician compared to other UMNO and BN leaders….. I will let you ponder that with your own interpretations though.
Back to Jeff Ooi, will he succeed in his political career? May be yes and may be no. No doubt he is definitely a very popular and blogger in the blogosphere but when it comes to real world, the game is not always on a level ground. As a matter of fact it can even be one sided, if you know what I mean.
While Jeff Ooi commands a lot of loyal readers and followers in the blogosphere, the same can’t be said when it comes to real election. For one, his online followers and supporters are all scattered around the world wide web but when it comes to election, he could well be dealing with different heart and souls altogether. Unless he is fielded in an urban constituency where there are more internet savvy voters, it could be an uphil task for Jeff Ooi to make it to the Parliment.
Having said that, the BN election machinary (read mainstream media) will definitely have loads of fun time fending off Jeff Ooi’s salvos fired from the blogosphere. Mind you, Jeff Ooi will not only be fighting from his two cyber battle grounds (Screenshots and Jeff 4 Malaysia), he will also be supported by other cyber warriors who have countless blogs to disseminate election-related information to voters, which could be the main reason for the recent crackdown on bloggers by the authority. Good luck Jeff.
Read [Malaysiakini] [Star Online]
[tags]Jeff Ooi, DAP, election, parliment, blogger, politician, Shahrir[/tags]
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