When politicians become content creators

PODCAST co-host and former politician Shahril Hamdan said something recently that stuck with me. He talked about how performative Malaysian politics has become. He’s not wrong.

In an age of short videos and livestreams, the distance between politicians and the public has never seemed smaller. That, in some ways, is progress. Information travels faster. Engagement is more direct. But alongside this shift, a quieter trend has also emerged: political expression is becoming increasingly influencer-like.