ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
In the mid-century, Internet information technology began to flourish worldwide, and a dramatic revolution brought about the Internet information age. The Internet has changed the way of human political life. A staggering number of Internet users began to form a significant force to participate in and influence national politics and public policy. The Internet has transformed traditional public policy processes on a global scale. Citizen participation on the Internet has gained widespread attention in politics, public administration, and public policy issues. The staggering amount of politically relevant information posted by citizens on the Internet has begun to form a significant political force that involves and influences politics and government public policy decisions. This study discusses the Malaysian government’s response to the flood event, the well-known “2021–2022 Malaysian Floods,” to explore the current state of political modernization and digital democracy in Malaysia based on bottom-up participation mechanisms of citizens’ Internet involvement in public policy processes. This paper argues that public participation in our public policy through effective Internet will have a broader democratic base and will be closer to the goal of democratic and scientific decision-making.
Agrawal, B. C. (2001). Information and communication technology challenges to democracy in Asia. Media Asia, 28(3), 131–134.
Alexander, C. J. & Pal, L. A. (1998). Digital democracy: Policy and politics in the wired world. Oxford University Press.
Applbaum, A. (1999). Democracy coming from governance in a networked world. Hollis Publishing Company.
Browning, G. (2002). Electronic democracy: Using the Internet to transform American politics (2nd ed.). CyberAge Books.
Choucri, N. (2000). Introduction: Cyberpolitics in international relations. International Political Science Review, 21(3), 243–263.
Compassionate aid for flood victims fully disbursed in five states, says PM. (2022). The Edge Markets. Retrieved from https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/compassionate-aid-flood-victims-fully-disbursed-five-states-says-pm
Davis, R. (2009). Typing politics: The role of Blogs in American politics. Oxford University Press.
Eagan, J. L. (2016). Deliberative democracy. Encyclopedia Britannica. Flood alert: People take to social media to call for help. (2021). The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/12/19/flood-alert-people-take-to-social-media-to-call-for-help Floods: Over 28,000 household heads received compassionate aid as of Jan 3, says PM. (2022). The Edge Markets. Retrieved from https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/floods-over-28000-household-heads-received-compassionate-aid-jan-3-says-pm
Hassan, H. (2021). Peninsular Malaysia hit by ‘1-in-100-year’ rainfall, govt says amid severe flooding. The Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-pm-ismail-mobilises-armed-forces-to-assist-with-flooding-more-rains-expected
Hunter, M. (2021). Floods expose disastrous failure in public policy. The FMT News. Retrieved from https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2021/12/22/floods-expose-disastrous-failure-in-public-policy/
Huntington, S. P. (1988). Political order in changing societies (Chinese, Trans.). Huaxia Publishing House. (Original work published 1968).
IFRC. (2021). Malaysia: Flash floods–Emergency plan of action (EPoA), DREF Operation (Report No. MDRMY008). Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/malaysia/malaysia-flash-floods-emergency-plan-action-epoa-dref-operation-mdrmy008
INTERACTIVE: How Malaysians mobilised online to aid flood victims. (2021). The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/12/25/interactive-how-malaysians-mobilised-online-to-aid-flood-victims
Islam, M. S. (2008). Towards a sustainable e-participation implementation model. European Journal of ePractice, 5(10), 1–12.
Jordan, T. (1999) Cyberpower: The culture and politics of cyberspace and the Internet. Routledge.
Kellner, D. (1998). Intellectuals, the new public spheres, and techno-politics. In C. Toulouse & T. W. Luke (Eds.), The politics of cyberspace (1st ed., pp. 167–186). Routledge.
Keohane, R. O., & Nye, J. S. (1998). Power and interdependence in the information age. Foreign Affairs, 77(5), 81–94.
Kumar, P. P. (2021). As flood water rises, Malaysian leader faces storm of criticism. Nikkei Asia. Retrieved from https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Natural-disasters/As-flood-water-rises-Malaysian-leader-faces-storm-of-criticism
Li, Y. G. (2009). Women de fanghuoqiang–Wangluo shidai de biaoda yu jiandu [Our firewall––Expression and regulation of the Internet age]. Guangxi Normal University Press.
Lim, I. (2022). How Malaysia can handle massive floods better: Here’s a checklist. Malay Mail. Retrieved from https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/01/05/how-malaysia-can-handle-massive-floods-better-heres-a-checklist/2033013
Malaysia–Tropical depression TWENTYNINE (GDACS, JTWC, met Malaysia TWENTYNINE, AHA Centre). (2021). ECHO Daily Flash. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/malaysia/malaysia-tropical-depression-twentynine-gdacs-jtwc-met-malaysia-aha-centre-echo
Malaysia–Floods and landslides, update (NADMA, Met Malaysia, media). (2022). ECHO Daily Flash. Retrieved from https://erccportal.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ECHO-Products/Echo-Flash#/daily-flash-archive/4383
Malaysia floods hit seven states forcing thousands to evacuate. (2022). CNN. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/02/asia/malaysia-floods-evacuation-intl-hnk/index.html
Malaysians rally on social media to help Klang Valley flood victims. (2021). News Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2021/12/755742/malaysians-rally-social-media-help-klang-valley-flood-victims
Masters, Z., Macintosh, A., & Smith, E. (2004). Young people and e-democracy: Creating a culture of participation. In R. Traunmüller (Ed.), Electronic government. EGOV 2004 (pp. 15–22). Springer.
Nye, J. S. (2004). The changing nature of power. Soft power: The means to success in world politics. PublicAffairs.
Robins, K., & Webster, F. (1999). The times of the technoculture: From the information society to the virtual life. Routledge.
Shi, C. H., & Zhang, X. H. (2013). Zhidu chuangxin: Dangdai zhongguo zhengzhi tizhi gaige de benzhi yu hexin [Institutional innovation: The essence and core of political system reform in contemporary China]. Journal of Guangdong Institute of Socialism, (2), 34–42.
Shukry, A. (2021). Malaysia Premier faces Twitter backlash over flood response. Bloomberg. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-24/malaysian-pm-ismail-faces-twitter-backlash-over-flood-response
Simon, J., Bass, T., Boelman, V., & Mulgan, G. (2017). Digital democracy: The tools transforming political engagement. Nesta.org.uk. Retrieved from https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/digital-democracy-the-tools-transforming-political-engagement/
Sunstein, C. R. (2001). Republic.com. Princeton University Press.
Tew, Y. L., Tan, M. L., Juneng, L., Chun, K. P., Hassan, M. H. B., Osman, S. B., ... & Kabir, M. H. (2022). Rapid extreme tropical precipitation and flood inundation mapping framework (RETRACE): Initial testing for the 2021–2022 Malaysia flood. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 11(7), 378.
Toffler, A. (1983). Previews & premises: An interview with the author of future shock and the Third Wave. William Morrow Company, Inc.
Toffler, A., & Toffler, H. (1996). Creating a new civilization: The politics of the Third Wave (F. Chen, Trans.). Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore Co., Ltd. (Original work published 1994).
Wang, F. S. (2013). Gongmin wangluo canyu gonggong zhengce guocheng yanjiu [Research on citizens’ Internet participation in public policy process]. Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press.
Yap, C. S., Keling, W., & Abdullah, S. K. (2022). Use of social media for information seeking and sharing during floods in rural Sarawak. International Journal of Emergency Services, (ahead-of-print).
Yuan, F., Gu, Z. Z., & Sun, J. (2006). Wangluo shehui de zhengfu yu zhengzhi––Wangluo jishu zai Xiandai shehui zhong de zhengzhi xiaoying fenxi [Government and politics in the network society–Analysis of the political effects of the network technology on the modern society]. Peking University Press.
Zainuddin, A. (2021). Frustration grows in Malaysia over government’s slow flood response. The Diplomat. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2021/12/frustration-grows-in-malaysia-over-governments-slow-flood-response/
In-Text Citation: (Liu et al., 2023)
To Cite this Article: Liu, N., Yasin, M. A. I., Alsagoff, S. A., Fang, N. C., & Li, M. (2023). Political Modernization and Digital Democracy: The Internet Participation of Malaysia Domestic Citizens to “2021–2022 Malaysian Floods” Event in Public Policy Process of Flood Response. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 13(4), 721 – 734.
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non0-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode