Online Oppositions in General Elections in Malaysia

This article evaluates the impact of the Internet on Malaysia's political environment and how new media contribute to the development of democracy in the country. In Malaysia, while the opposition parties had a small share of mainstream media, they were able to sway the hearts of Malaysian voters through the use of the Internet and alternative media. The method of data collection employed in this research involves thorough in-depth interviews with Malaysian informants who are directly or indirectly related to the media. The results show that the effects of new media have enabled opposition parties to make a spectacular electoral gain. Initially, the paper assesses the observations made by the international institutions about the freedom of expression and also evaluates the influence of the Internet on the democracy in Malaysia which caused the opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan to emerge as winners which marks an unexpected comeback not only for Tun Mahathir Mohamad but also for democracy.