‘Stop politicising the social media’
KUALA LUMPUR: Many politicians and the public have begun using the online social media such as Twitter and Facebook as a “weapon” in criticising the government or even for personal attacks. Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”.
Just two days ago, Kota Alam state assemblyman Manoharan Malayalam in his tweet on national shuttler, Datuk Lee Chong Wei tweeted:
Since his tweet on August 6, Manoharan had come under fire from many leaders and even the public. I must say, I was even disgusted with the tweets and had for an instant thought this “What kind of person must you be to tweet about the only athlete who won possibly the only medal for the country in the Olympics?”
Manoharan should read the Olympics Charter which states “To encourage and support the efforts of sports organisations and public authorities to provide for the social and professional future of athletes,” and “ To oppose any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes”.
Although the Charter is directed towards the International Committee, I personally feel that it should be followed by all people around the world.
Tweets such as these are uncalled for and unnecessary. Why throw your personal feelings on Twitter and get criticised for it? Your statement will just create anger and animosity towards yourself. Don’t Tweet if you do not have anything nice to say.
Although you had apologised, the matter still stands. Why Tweet if you have nothing to say. Keep it to yourself and talk about it over a cup of ‘teh tarik’ with your friends or family. Don’t do it online. What’s typed can’t be deleted.
Many may say, that the social media is the place to go to vent out their anger or to express their happiness. This is not wrong but when an influential person uses it for the wrong reasons, I feel that it creates bad publicity and unwanted criticism.
Why are politicians politicising sports? According to Wikipedia, sports is all forms of competitive physical activity which through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Don’t turn sports ground into a political field.
Manoharan had also created a similar outburst in 2011 through his statement regarding the Malaysian flag. On September 16, Manoharan on his Facebook message which was subsequently removed stated that he will not fly the Jalur Gemilang, Malaysia’s national flag because ‘it looked more BN than Malaysian’. He distributed the DAP flag instead.
Manoharan is not the only politician to abuse Twitter or Facebook. By the way, whose idea is it to allow politicians to go on a rampage on these social media?
It’s certainly been entertaining for the public to see politicians going against each other via Twitter or Facebook. However, due to over-excitement, many politicians have put caution into wind and failed to note the rules of engagement while being on the social network.
I personally feel that any Tweet posted by a politician bears your public image. Twitter can be used to its advantage and no one knows it better than Khairy Jamaluddin. His Tweets have helped him reach out to the urban and Internet public platforms. Rather than hurt his image, Twitter had only boosted his image in the public eyes.
As stated above think before Tweeting because anything put online can be traced back eventually. You can’t just delete a tweet. Even if you do, someone might have taken a screenshot of the said statement. So think before you jump.
To all politicians out there, kindly put your personal feelings aside while tweeting about an important issue. Its not funny as such Tweets can only hurt a person’s feelings and it may even lead to trouble –TMT