Najib: Social media a double-edged sword

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has singled out social media as a double-edged sword for Barisan Nasional as the coalition prepares for the general election.

The Prime Minister and Barisan chairman said that with the advent of ICT, social media had turned into something that was “good” as well as a “bane”.

“(It) could be our Achilles heel as well,” he told anchor Fareed Zakaria in a CNN televised session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He acknowledged that voters nowadays had a higher level of expectations, were more educated and critical, and as such, the Government needed to do things differently.

“We need to realise people are not going to give their votes to you based on how much you have done in the past.

“No one can deny the fact that Umno and Barisan are the ones who fought for independence and developed the country but today people are saying that was in the past, we want to know what you can do for us in the future,” he said.

If he was re-elected as Prime Minister, Najib pledged that he would do “everything and anything possible” to make Malaysia a fully developed nation by 2020.