MALAYSIAN NETIZENS’ PERCEPTIONS OF 1MDB: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

Background and Purpose: This article analyses the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) political scandal as a case study to examine how an issue is discursively shaped online by netizens’ perceptions of the scandal. The study has two objectives: firstly, to explore netizens’ perceptions of 1MDB and how they reacted to the news reported based on the online exposés appearing throughout 2015. Secondly, it aims to examine whether the discourse regarding 1MDB among netizens on an online platform, The Malaysian Insider Facebook page, meets the characteristics of a practical discourse in an online context, as proposed by Jurgen Habermas.
 
 Methodology: A total of 1950 Facebook comments related to 210 1MDB articles in 2015 were analysed. The articles were linked and published by The Malaysia Insider Facebook page. The analysis was conducted using thematic analysis via NVivo software to explore the perceptions of the selected netizens about 1MDB and how the online discourse on 1MDB matched the characteristics proposed by Jurgen Habermas for practical online discourse.
 
 Findings: Four themes emerged, namely Najib as the Prime Minister, the 1MDB Debate Controversy, the Opposition position on 1MDB and the investigation of the 1MDB scandal. Based on the online discourse, it was evident that consumption of 1MDB news on Facebook led Malaysian netizens to form their own perceptions of the scandal. The emergent themes also illustrate that the online discourse met the characteristics of practical discourse suggested by Jurgen Habermas.
 
 Contributions: This empirical contribution fills a gap in the current knowledge as few studies have been conducted on the online discourse of the 1MDB political scandal among Malaysian netizens. Currently, no research is documented on the 1MDB political scandal from the netizens’ perspective other than the first author’s PhD thesis. This research is, therefore, beneficial to new media studies as researchers normally investigate or explore a specific issue when it has a conclusion; here, a risk was taken to conduct the study while 1MDB was still under investigation.
 
 Keywords: 1MDB, 2015, Najib Razak, netizens, Malaysia.
 
 Cite as: Mohd Nor, N. H., & Baharuddin, Z. (2021). Malaysian netizens’ perceptions of 1MDB: A thematic analysis. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(1), 351-372. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss1pp351-372