For those who are not familiar with Malaysian news (and politics), January 9 (and hence, the Twitter hashtag #901) marks a significant day in the country’s political landscape.
Former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is expecting the verdict (Update: He has just been acquitted) from a sodomy trial in which he has been named defendant. Politically, the verdict is significant, no less because Anwar is the current opposition leader and a guilty verdict will have significant impact on his political career and the next general elections expected to be called soon.
It is also significant because this is arguably the most politically-charged event in Malaysian since the Bersih 2.0 rally about half a year ago where the police department (Polis Di-Raja Malaysia or PDRM) took a social media beating for what some people claimed were inappropriate action.
Which leads me to the point of this post.
Over the past hour, and as I write this, the police department’s Twitter account @PDRMsia has been terribly active live tweeting from outside the courtroom. Among the things the Tweeter account has been sharing include arrival of public personalities, pictures of those who are present (supporters of Anwar, opponents etc) and more.
Assuming that the account is legit (considering how easy it is to set up a hoax account these days, and the fact that it appears linked to the PDRM Facebook page), its tweets this morning (or night, where I am) is very interesting to me. There has also been reports that the cops were planning on a “social media blitz” today.
For one, they appear to be very casual which, to me, isn’t very consistent with PDRM’s image. If you scroll back to its tweets from a couple of days ago, you might notice that the tweets are somewhat more formal in tone.
Secondly, there appears to be a lack of formal protocol – like the reference to Anwar Ibrahim without his title of Datuk Seri.
Third of all, the tweets appear rather neutral, which is a good thing considering the perception that the PDRM is often pro-Government, or at least heavily influenced by the Home Ministry. And its apparent bias against public demonstrations in its previous social media updates.
That said, there are a few things that interests me from a social media point of view.
1. Who is tweeting?
I am fascinated to know who is actually doing the live tweeting. I am suspecting that the person(s) is actually on location because the tweets are coming from a Blackberry, instead of say, web-based (which might indicate that messages are being sent back to a central place before disseminated).
This is interesting because I feel that there are security issues with allowing just anyone to “speak” from an official channel for the police department (some people have suggested that an agency was hired to do this live tweeting). I say this especially so having dealt with the police department before, and knowing that it is not easy to get a statement from officers let alone interviews.
2. What is their social media strategy?
Why are they doing this? While it is no longer uncommon for police departments in different parts of the world to tweet from location (or at least updates about certain locations), I wonder what they hope to achieve from posting tweets about people showing up in costumes, handing out masts of Anwar and children who have been brought along.
It has been suggested that this was the PDRM’s attempt to “log” all the happenings in case they find themselves needing to defend allegations against them, such as recently when cops were accused of violent acts against a student.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were posting safety and security related updates, but I can’t seem to figure these tweets out.
3. Are they aspiring journalists?
The biggest question in my mind really is whether it is the role of the PDRM to post live tweets along the tone that news agencies and the public (or citizen journalist, as they have been popularly dubbed) do or, like what I suggested earlier, only updates related to safety and security.
Personally, I would prefer them to take that role, only because it is directly related to their jobs. Also, this means that when they have some important updates or announcements, it wouldn’t be lost among tens (or hundreds) of random tweets.
Whatever it is, though, I would agree with many people on Twitterverse who feel that this is a good move from the PDRM, especially in engaging the public (although, they don’t appear to be responding to any tweets). Truth be told, it’s also not bad live tweeting (besides some bad grammar and empty tweets with just links to photos, and as my friend @juanajaafar just noted, inappropriate posting of photos of underaged children without parents consent) – there appears to be a nice collection of tweets about different things happening on the ground, and some of the comments are entertaining.
If anything, it shows that the PDRM is trying to remain relevant and whatever issues I have with its tweets, is something they can work on (if they feel my comments are justified, that is) for the future.
