PILIHAN RAYA UMUM KE-13: PERUBAHAN BUDAYA POLITIK MALAYSIA DAN KRISIS LEGITIMASI MORAL BARISAN NASIONAL.

The paper aims to answer, despite massive expenditures deemed to have made this 13th General Election (GE13) the most expensive election in history and the use of popular culture images by the Barisan Nasiona (BN) led by Najib Razak to win, the ruling coalition lost the popular vote with a worse performance than in 2008. To understand this poor performance, this paper proposes an analysis that goes beyond the issues surrounding the ballot paper. An analysis of GE13 results should be read in conjunction with the 40 years of development resulting in structural changes in the economy, society and culture, with significant impact on politics. A new social movement from the last 15 years slowly built a collective memory between two generations to form a new cultural identity. BN tried to adapt the changes through their campaign that leverages popular culture which represents this group - Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, concerts, smartphones - but popular culture is not only a matter of forms but also the relations of power and resistance. These power relations shape the meaning and affect the moral legitimacy of BN before getting translated onto the ballot paper. Thus, this paper will also develop an analysis for the answer, why the BN, despite recognising the change in the political culture, making adjustments and targeting the youngsters in its campaign, still failed to win the hearts of the electorate, especially young voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]