Malaysia's US$10 million blogger, allegedly

13th GE psy(ber)-war begins.John Bertelsen of Middle East Sentinelgot in hold with me earlier this week after conference which I'd been since US$10 m by Umno to spearhead a party's blog offensive come a 13th General Election. you laughed it off as crap. He did, too, but his sources were convinced of my "ill-gotten" gains because I'm pushing a BMW as well as I've gotten a Harley Davidson. Hehe. you told him you had a BMW two years ago, shortly after you rejoined The Malay Mail as a boss. My Softail Heritage is a used Harly, built in 1997 as well as now in a workshop.

Click to readMalaysia's Anti-Opposition Bloggers

I'm certain Umno has a plan to engage Pakatan Rakyat's armed forces of bloggers, headlines portals, as well as cybertroopers during a general election. With which plan comes a budget. However, you am not arcane to which plan as well as certainly not to any bill which has been set in reserve to govern it. But if it's RM10 m (as my crony a PKR YB Nik Nazmi alleged), you do not consider which that's enough to do a job. Nik Nazmi's Selangor alone has set in reserve some-more than which (RM15 million, if I'm not mistaken), only for a internet TV as well as a small publication in a state. How much is PR spending upon a complete cyberspace as well as social media fight room, together with a networks formed abroad which it's been sponsoring? Quite a bit, I'm sure. In this regards, Bertelsen's US10 million sounds some-more plausible but a amount is still way as well little!

After Mar 2008, during a ! blog sem inar in Universiti Malaya, you likely a rise of a BN bloggers to encounter a enemies during a subsequent GE. During a 12th GE, Umno as well as a coalition partners had been impressed by Pakatan's total dominance of a new/social media. As you know, it was not which PR was some-more savvy. It was because BN was all anti-social media. Te advisers to a Prime Minister then failed to conclude a power as well as change of blogs, portals, FB as well as chatter upon voters, especially a immature ones.

Expect both BN as well as PR to deposit a lot of income to supply their cyber soldiers for a coming fight (for a record, you do not believe which BN will be spending some-more than PR). Expect a few blogs as well as portals to jump sides. It'd do good to remember which RPK was NOT upon Anwar Ibrahim or Pakatan Rakyat's side until only a few months before a Mar 2008 elections. And do not forget, most pro-Umno bloggers of today were campaigning against a Abdullah regime during a time.