Twittersphere of PKR deputy presidency

PKR leadership election become a hot topic in the media because Rafizi Ramli challenged incumbent Azmin Ali for his PKR deputy president post. Consequently, the battle for the party number 2 made waves in Twitter.

 

July

 

 

Focusing into the month of July, the network is divided into 3 big groups. First group is consisting of news portal, which mostly talked about the PKR election.

 

The second group talked about Azmin Ali. The influencers in this group are @callmedatinseri and @TheDukeofKL. These influencers have grouping that are quit distance from each other. Account @callmedatinseri talked about freeing Rosmah Mansor from jail, which is not related to Azmin. Hence, we can see that their Twitter activity did not reach far from their circle. Meanwhile, @TheDukeofKL talked about Azmin’s son bank account which allegedly to have RM3.2 million. This content is much more relevant to Azmin as it might affect him not just for the party election, but also a politician. Additionally, the Twitter activity in this circle is closer to the other groups.

 

The third group talked about Rafizi Ramli. The active account that talked about it are @bongkersz and @PenalMinang. Both of the accounts are arguing with each other as Rafizi and Anwar bank accounts were not frozen during their trial, but that is not the case for Najib.

 

August

 

 

In August, the integration between groups have become more obvious as the political war on Twitter regarding the deputy presidency have started. The first group consist of news portal like @501Awani, @msianinsight and @malaysiakini. The group talked on the PKR election.

 

This time, the Rafizi group have moved closer to the news group. Due to Rafizi contesting for the deputy post, users started to talk on the close relationship between Rafizi and Anwar’s family. The influencer in this group are @HermyRahim and @HajiMat5.

 

For Azmin group, again it is not supporting Azmin but attacking him for not taking care on the people’s welfare. Plus, they framed that PKR candidate for Seri Setia by-election is from Azmin camp, ignoring the supposed candidate which is the division chief of PKR Kelana Jaya. The influencer in this group is @The_UglyOrgan.

 

September

 

 

In September, the PKR election network have only two groups, Azmin group and Rafizi group.

 

Rafizi group has dominated the news portal accounts such as @501Awani, @NewsBFM, @malaysiakini and @msianinsight. Other influencers are @mutalibuthan, @HermyRahim, and @HajiMat5. There are numerous issues discussed in this group. First, it is about the Port Dickson by-election. Second, Rafizi brushed off the rumour that PKR will be split into two due to the two camps within the party. Besides, Rafizi was also linked with the current fate of other parties like PAS and UMNO.

 

On the other hand, Azmin group is dominated by @TheDukeofKl, @TheUglyOrgan and @@Sir_Azri which are all prominent political influencers in Twitter. They also talked about Port Dickson by-election, but they play on the rumour that Azmin and Anwar are not in good terms. They used Azmin statement that PKR need to have power and not unemployed. They also said that Anwar is contesting the by-election to block Azmin from getting more powerful and influential in politics.

 

October

 

 

In October, Rafizi group dominated the network by taking 65% space of the total network. Rafizi group talked about PKR Election result due to Rafizi’s result tweet. There are also people supporting Rafizi in the party election, while claiming Azmin to be corrupted. Additionally, Rafizi was also mentioned with the rumour of Anwar sodomizing a boy in Singapore.

 

In Azmin group, it consists of both pro and contra tweets. The contra group said that Azmin Ali misuse government car to campaign for by-election and lying about Malaysia economy development. The pro group talked about Azmin Ali achievement as Menteri Besar Selangor.

 

Overall, Azmin have always been targeted by political keyboard warrior in Twitter. Maybe it is due to him being in the cabinet. Meanwhile, Rafizi will also be mentioned when the matter is regarding Anwar.

 

Rafizi showed more enthusiasm in PKR party election by tweeting on the result. Azmin just play it cool, letting the supporters support and the haters hate.