DEC 16 — In my career as a journalist, I have managed to cover two general elections — the ones in 2004 and 2008.

In 2004, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was leading Barisan Nasional (BN) in an election for the first time and many saw him as a refreshing change after 22 years of Mahathirism.

The Internet was around then but its penetration wasn’t that high (37 per cent) and broadband was in its infancy in the country.

Barisan Nasional, as expected, won the elections in a landslide victory.

I covered the elections in the Lembah Pantai constituency where Shahrizat Jalil was the BN candidate and she defeated Sanusi Osman from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

In 2008, Abdullah was losing his grip on Umno. The elections took place and BN suffered its worst results in an election ever (although it still won).

This time, Internet penetration in the country had risen significantly to 63 per cent and broadband connection had matured relatively well too.

I was covering the elections in Penang, following blogger Jeff Ooi, who was running under the DAP banner, for the Jelutong constituency.

Now this was something out of the ordinary for me.

Ooi, an Internet activist, had gained popularity and built such a following through his blog that he was courted by the DAP for the elections. And, of course, he won.

What I’m trying to say here is that I feel that the online media played a very big role in influencing the outcome of the 2008 general election.

The opposition, which had no chance of using traditional media like television, newspapers and radio, looked towards the Internet.

The public who were frustrated with what they were seeing in the traditional media decided to go online to look for alternative news.

It worked out nicely for the opposition since the BN was complacent with its traditional media influence and neglected the online media.

Now comes the interesting part. The next general election is scheduled to be called in 2012 which is really just around the corner.

It will be my third general election working as a journalist and, although I haven’t decided where I would be covering it, I can’t wait to see how the overall results will turn out.

This time, broadband Internet is everywhere and the Internet penetration rate in the country is steadily closing in on 70 per cent.

But what makes it interesting for me is that now even the BN has begun to utilise the online media as well as the opposition.

You can’t deny that. Just look at how impressive Prime Minister Najib Razak’s online presence is, utilising all kinds of social media platforms.

Then there has been the proliferation of so many online news sites. There are those that clearly have an agenda and also those that are fairly objective.

The public has now actually been getting information from all sides of the spectrum — opposition, ruling party and balanced views — from the online media.

From the perspective of influence of the media, the election results could actually be an indicator of how mature the public has grown.

As information now is relatively balanced in the online media, the public will need to be able to process it for themselves and make up their own minds.

So 2012 could be the year where the revolution will definitely not be televised.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.