IN a country where political surveys are rare, an online study has shown that a Malaysian’s first language can also indicate political preferences.

A Politweet study released last week showed that. Politweet is a Malaysian group which tracks online trends.

According to a study released last week, Chinese-speaking Facebook users prefer the opposition compared with Malay-speaking audiences, who favour the government. 

The majority (60.16%) of the 6.4 million Facebook users, above the age of 21, are bilingual users of English and Malay.

This is followed by Malay-only users (14.84%), Chinese-English users (11.72%), Malay-Chinese users and English-only users (both at 3.91%).

Trilingual speakers (2.34%), and Chinese-only speakers (less than 2%), make up the remainder.

The study also shows that bilingual users – Malay-English, Chinese-English and Malay-only – are the three most important language groups on Facebook, making up 86.72%.  

At least a third of the users in these three language groups are interested in both sides of the political divide.  

Barisan Nasional, however, has a higher reach among the Malay-English, Malay-only and English-only audiences on Facebook compared with the opposition, which includes PAS in this study.  

The opposition leads BN among Chinese-English, Malay-Chinese and trilingual audiences on the social networking site, the study said.  

“There is a clear divide in political interest by language between Malay users (mainly the Malay-English and Malay-only groups) and Chinese speakers (mainly the bilingual Chinese-English group),” the report said.  

It observed that BN has a stronger influence among Malay-language users (by an average of 2.49% per state), which means that there is a larger base of Malay-language users who are only aware of and talking about issues related to BN.

Similarly, the opposition has a stronger influence among Chinese language users (by an average of 12.88% per state). 

According to Politweet, the states with the highest percentage of Malay and Bumiputera citizens are Terengganu (97%), Kelantan (96%), Perlis (86%) and Sabah (81%), which also have the highest concentration of Malay-language users.

“The states with the highest percentage of Chinese citizens are Penang (44%), Johor (34%), KL and Selangor (32%), Perak (30%) and Malacca (26%). Apart from KL and Selangor, these states have the highest concentration of Chinese and English users.

“Despite some similarities, it is important to note that on Facebook, not all Malay speakers are ethnically Malay, Bumiputera Sarawak or Bumiputera Sabah, and not all Chinese speakers are ethnically Chinese.

“However, it is safe to assume that most ethnic Malays in Peninsular Malaysia can be found in the Malay-English and Malay-only groups,” said Politweet.

Politweet did the study based on estimates provided by Facebook for July 2017. The statistics on the opposition primarily refer to component parties of the former Pakatan Rakyat – PKR, PAS and DAP. This includes the “Pakatan” brand name.

The study said that 62.5% of Facebook users live in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. – October 16, 2017.