As GE13 approached, former Pakatan officials leaked the existence of
the so-called 'Red Bean Army', a group of paid DAP cybertroopers
numbering up to 3,000 based out of Penang and KL, who flooded social
media and blogs with outright lies, disinformation and co-ordinated
attacks on candidates and parties.
Ex-PKR Youth information bureau secretary Nordin Ahmad confirmed the
existence of the group and claimed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had used it
to further his baseless allegations of electoral fraud.
Now Chinese language daily, China Press, claims that a certain Li Shuang had admitted to the existence of a Red Bean Army Facebook fanpage, Zheng Yi Zhi Sheng.
Yet the allegations carry weight because so many have experience with
Pakatan cybertroopers using racially derogatory terms to crude insults
in social media, from flooding a site with indecent comments to
launching attacks designed to bring down a site. Opposition-friendly
portals that report negatively on Pakatan leaders have also experienced
these attacks.
The DAP categorically denies the existence of the group. Speak to the Star
daily, Jeff Ooi, Malaysia's first blogger elected into Parliament,
claimed that the seeming limitless swarm of Pakatan Rakyat cybertroopers
are merely everyday people echoing the abusive chat room culture of the
1990s.
Yet even taking the DAP at its collective word, Pakatan Rakyat are
not absolved from responsibility. Whether there is or isn't a Red Bean
Army, Pakatan sets the tone, using irresponsible rhetoric that
cybertroopers then magnify into harassment and true criminal acts such
as sedition and inciting racial violence.
Anwar's entire history of political speech since the polls concluded
in May has been fuel for the cybertroopers' fire; but his irresponsible
actions hardly began on May 5, 2013. Before the election had even
occurred, Anwar with his political allies in Bersih and barely-disguised
Pakatan NGOs had already accused the Government of stealing the
election.
Pakatan's cybertroopers, whether organised or not, took their cues
and promoted these ideas on every site imaginable. In one notorious
example, comment threads on articles about Samsung's new mobile phones
were overrun with allegations that the Government would shut down
mobiles in Pakatan-controlled states during the election.
This sort of thing poisons online discourse, which in turn fuels
paranoia and mistrust offline. It undermines national unity when it is
needed most, and divides the rakyat even more. The goal of national
reconciliation – a goal nominally shared by Pakatan Rakyat – suffers
with each wave of cyberattacks.
"Please observe some kind of decorum and never accuse people of being
guilty unless you have proof," Ooi advises. This is good advice, but it
is something that should start first with his own coalition.
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