By: Carolyn Hong

YOU can never really know a person from their online persona, or can you? I wondered about that when I attended a Tweet Up, or Twitter Meet Up, a couple of days ago.

Let me hasten to say that it was a political Tweet Up, organised by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, in a restaurant. It was all assuredly above board.

I already knew some of the guests, as much as you can know a person from Twitter exchanges. It was a small group of 20 people.

We talked politics, of course, as we nibbled on Middle Eastern lamb and rice, and washed down by hot sweet tea. I switched off when the talk turned to football, though.

In the true spirit of Tweet Ups, the discussion was off-record but suffice to say, it was wide-ranging and frank. No topic was off-limits.

Being one of the most controversial politicians, thanks to tales of his alleged influence over his father-in-law then premier Abdullah Badawi, there were loads of things to ask Khairy.

He answered them all.

It was an astute way to engage some of the savviest IT-users, with the hope that his message gets passed along the informal Internet community and find its way into the real community.

Twitter has become the hottest place for young Malaysian politicians to hang out. Follow a few of them, and you'll become privy to their heated (but usually courteous) Twitter political debates as they slug it out online.

It can be entertaining to watch the two Oxford graduates, Khairy Jamaluddin (Umno) and Tony Pua (DAP) exchange political jibes on Twitter.

Cyberspace is still dominated by the opposition but the younger Barisan Nasional set is catching up. The BN had made a major mistake in ignoring cyberspace rantings in the last general election, only realising belatedly that these quickly become part of the real world and impossible to counter once it’s out there.

Even Prime Minister Najib Razak has taken the leap into the cyberworld, and will host a tea party for 300 of his Facebook fans next week.

Increasingly, for the younger generation at least, the online and offline worlds tend to blur into one. I realised this when I got home from the Tweet Up and signed onto Twitter. The guests had posted photos and tweets even as it went on, thanks to the ubiquitous Blackberry.

Oh yes, I was the only person there who didn't own a Blackberry. Can't decide if that’s a good thing, or not.

(The Straits Times)