KUALA LUMPUR - Hate speech surged during Malaysia's bitterly contested general election last November, according to a study of social media that also found Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and its president Hadi Awang to be prime proponents of racial rhetoric.
Although PAS is now in the opposition as part of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, it ended up as the largest party in Malaysia's Parliament for the first time, with 43 MPs in the 222-strong Chamber.
"PAS president Hadi Awang and his party were the biggest amplifiers of race. Posts on race were also found to perpetuate disinformation," said the report published by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) in partnership with Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and University of Nottingham Malaysia.
It cited as an example Tan Sri Hadi's TikTok claim that the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance was "merely using Malay candidates to gain voter traction", which saw 2.5 million engagements, the highest of close to 100,000 messages analysed.
This story is from the June 01, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.
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This story is from the June 01, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.
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