A Malaysian Granny and Web 2.0 Politics

Barack Obama and Ron Paul aren't the only two politicians who've made the most out of Web 2.0 tools in running their campaigns. Just like her Western counterparts, 89-year-old grandmother and Malaysian parliament candidate Maimun Yusuf has turned to the Internet for her campaign, fighting for a parliament seat controlled by Malaysian's current ruling coalition.

Maimun has 7 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, and is registered as an independent candidate. With very little money, she has turned to supporters (24 volunteers) to help her get her message out. While Maimun is barely literate herself, the volunteers run a blog for her, a Gmail account, a YouTube channel, a Picasa album, and a Facebook group promoting their candidate.

Maimun is a woman of very simple means. She works as a textile trader, and travels on an old bicycle. She says she has spent 20,000 ringgit (about $6319 USD) on her campaign, which is most of her savings, and said that she entered the race because she was tired of younger people doing nothing to bring about change while railing against current conditions. She has a very simple message for voters:

“I am upset when I see a lot of youths turning to drugs and there are not enough schools. If chosen, I will make it all better.”

Brian Ong, the owner of an education consulting firm in Shanghai, and two of his friend, M. Gobi and Sim, are helping Maimun with the online portion of her campaign, uploading pictures, posting campaign information (including a full accounting of expenditures) on the blog, and answering her email. Of his help, Ong says only,

“…we truly just want to help her because she is fighting for a good cause, and that is reason enough.”

Picture credit: Brian Ong from Facebook group Fans of Maimun Yusuf, Malaysia's 89 year old election candidate

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