Utusan: Still the mouthpiece of UMNO?
As Malaysia Indicator continues to monitor the Rantau by-election, it looks like this time around Utusan has already had its engine started.
On the March 4, 2019, the Election Commission (EC) secretary Datuk Mohamed Elias said a special meeting will be held on the 6th of March to decide the date for the Rantau by-election. If we look at the media share for the by-election above, UMNO’s mouthpiece, Utusan is in the lead with 32 news way before the polling day was set.
In comparison, if we look at Utusan’s coverage on the Cameron Highlands and Semenyih by-elections, the media portal is not the one leading even after the dates are set by EC. On December 19 2018, the EC had set January 26 for the Cameron Highlands by-election. Meanwhile, on January 18 2019 the Semenyih by-election is set take place on March 2.
During this time, non-mainstream portal – MalaysiaKini (for Cameron Highlands) and The Malay Mail Online (for Semenyih) – leads in covering the respective by-elections. For Cameron Highlands, Utusan ranked at number 7 whereas for Semenyih, it ranks at number 5.
UMNO’s victory in both by-elections made the party to be more confident as they believe that the Malay voters’ supports are swinging back to the party. Referring to the ethnic breakdown of Rantau’s electorate as of 2018 – 54% are Malay, 19% are Chinese and 27% are Indian.
Moreover, Rantau by-election will involve Mohamad Hasan as BN candidate and he is one of the top leaderships of UMNO. Does Utusan’s high amount of news on Rantau by-election indicate that the press has become more upfront in being the mouthpiece of UMNO just like the way it was before GE-14?