Let's See: Some Review on the Past GE13

In the recent 13^th Malaysia General Election (GE13), political campaign is very important issue highlighted by parties involved. The objective to win the poll almost impossible to be achieved without political campaign. Parties would do whatever possible to voters’ mind and consequently win the election. Political campaign held by Barisan Nasional is seen as very aggressive as the ruling party would do anything they can to achieve their target.

Barisan Nasional had set their target for the campaign. Obviously, the party wants to maintain ruling the country and to prevent the right from being taken by the opposition. Nobody able to reject the fact - the opposition which is from Pakatan Rakyat gained support from the citizen day by day. The opposition never stop pointing out Barisan Nasional’s fault- in any way which to them not relevant to be implemented. For example the opposition claimed that government service tax that to be implemented by Barisan Nasional is to fulfill their political agenda and make profit up to RM27 billion from there. This has affected the image and reputation of Barisan Nasional and resulting to importance of political campaign by the party during the election.

People would say that the media is owned by Barisan Nasional based on the campaigns held. Before the election, the media played important role in disseminating Barisan Nasional’s agenda in getting support from the citizen. Printed or electronic media were used aggressively every day. For example, via TV and radio news, news regarding Barisan Nasional’s achievement aired at the beginning slot during the prime time, almost every day. In addition, the media also without exception convey negative news related to the opponents.

The message conveyed are mostly highlighted Barisan Nasional's reliability of taking care of citizen’s welfare, and also agenda or plan to develop the country and the people. These are promoted in detailed by the government through various mediums such as special events, road shows and so on. For example, event to launch Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BRIM)  was seen as a very effective campaign to win the support from the citizen.

After all the campaigns, Barisan Nasional received all sorts of response from the public. Some consider that the campaigns were quite extreme in terms of use of unfair media in disseminating information. Certain groups think that there was also Barisan Nasional government's target to use media in their campaign. News on BRIM for instance was done purposely before the election to get votes and support and now the news getting lesser published. In this case, there are two groups of public which are those giving support to Barisan Nasional after all of the campaign, and also the other group, who changed their mind to support the opponents because they feel there was unfair implemented in the campaign.