Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said his “biggest mistake” in disastrous elections was to ignore cyber-campaigning on the Internet which was seized by the opposition.The powerful Barisan Nasional coalition suffered its worst-ever results in March 8 polls that left five states and a third of parliamentary seats in opposition hands.The opposition, which was largely ignored by government-linked mainstream media, instead waged an enormously successful online campaign using blogs, news websites and SMS text messages.”We certainly lost the Internet war, the cyber-war,” Abdullah said in in a speech to an investment conference.
“It was a serious misjudgement. We made the biggest mistake in thinking that it was not important,” he said.
“We thought that the newspapers, the print media, the television was supposed to be important, but the young people were looking at SMS and blogs.”
Monks marching in the streets, buildings being burned, students staging sit-in protests, midnight raids by the military, towns and cities being sealed off…
This is Tibet after the most violent protests in nearly 20 years following pro-independence rallies commemorating the 49th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet . The Chinese government reports 16 people dead while the Tibetan Government in Exile, reports at least 80 deaths. Watch video below.
International concern is growing as a result of house-to-house raids, imposed curfews, numerous arrests, and increased media repression.
The Chinese government has reportedly placed restrictions on international media coverage in Tibet , blocking or filtering websites like Yahoo! and YouTube and censoring the local feeds of news agencies including the BBC and CNN. However, eyewitness accounts, photos, and videos (mostly from cellphones) are making their way out — and onto the Hub.