"If there is a Declaration of War, We Welcome the War": Undi-18, TikTok Election and Normalisation of Violence

Abstract

Malaysia's democracy has come under attack due to the radicalisation of young and first-time voters on social media platforms. The widespread usage of TikTok as a primary campaign battleground by the political parties during the 15th General Election (GE-15) marks the anomaly pattern of first-time youth voters. Moreover, having social media influencers courting youth voters as a pawn in the electoral war is considered an accentuation of provocation of hate speech, endangering the prospect of moderate democracy in Malaysia. This commentary studies such anomalies by interviewing youth from varying socio-economic standing and educational backgrounds across Malaysia. Our research note highlights two crucial areas of unexplored terrain for future research. The first is the immediate need to invest in an emancipatory discourse of civic and political education and unabated expansions of democratic space and rights. Secondly, alarming concerns of electoral terrorism and hate speech via social media unravelled the under-research angles or assumed organic political divisions between analogue generations of corrupted warlords versus digital politics of technocratic youth savvy. Inadvertently, our observation of the 15th GE has discerned an increasing political worrisome pattern of widespread manipulative tendency by politicians, including using Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) technology to predict the voting pattern and understand the population sentiment through social media. We also concluded that tactics employed by the cyber troopers of political parties have significantly manipulated and poisoned the neutrality and perspectives of first-time youth voters.

Abstrak: Demokrasi sedang diserang kerana radikalisasi belia dan pengundi kali pertama di flatform medial sosial. Penggunaan secara meluas aplikasi TikTok and platform media sosial lain sebagai medan perperangan bagi parti politik semasa Pilihanraya Umum Ke-15 menandakan pola pengundian pengundi muda kali pertama yang tidak normal. Tambahan pula, peanan peppengaruh media sosial yang mengendalikan pengundi muda sebagai buah catur sewaktu perang pilihanraya sebagai peningkatan provokasi uacapan kebencian, mebahayakan prospek demokrasi sederhana di Malaysia. Makalah komentari mengkaji anomali tersebut dengan cara mewawancara belia dari pelbagai latarbelakang socio-ekonomi dan pendidikan di Malaysia. Ulasan kami meenegaskan keperluan meneroka dua aspek penyelidikan mendatang. Pertamanya adalah keperluan segera untuk meneroka wacana emansipasi sivik dan pendidikan politik serta perluasan ruang dan hak berdemokrasi yang tiada batas. Kedua, kebimbangan mengenai keganasan pilihanraya dan ucapan kebencian melalui media sosial menunjukkan masih kurangnya kajian terhadap tanggapn lumrah perpecahan antara generasi analog dan pemimpin rasuah dengan generasi belia berteknokratik dan politik digitalnya. Justeru, pemerhatian kami terhadap PRU ke-15 dan kebimbangan peningkatan corak berpolitik dengan kecenderungan manipulatif ahli politik, termasuk dalam penggunaan teknologi Revolusi Industri 4.0 (IR 4.0) untuk mentafsir corak pengundian dan memahami sentimen melalui media sosial. Signifikan taktik kempen siber parti politik dalam meracuni perspektif objekti pengundi muda kali pertama.

Kata Kunci: pru ke-15, pilihanraya TikTok, pengundi muda kali pertama di Malaysia, automasi kepintaran mesin dan perisikan media sosial