International tourism has become one of the largest and most vital economic sectors of the global economy driving huge flows of people, commodities, and capital. Tourism has been and continues to be an important foreign exchange earner to many countries in South East Asia and Malaysia is no exception. The aim of this article is to trace the factors for visiting Malaysia, image of Malaysia as a tourism destination and competitiveness of Malaysia as a tourism destination among outbound Middle East tourists to Malaysia. A survey was used to obtain data randomly from 357 outbound Middle East tourists leaving Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). From the results, for most of the Middle East tourists, safety and security is extremely important for choosing Malaysia as a foreign country for long-haul travel. Malaysia is at the top of the list of top five countries for long-haul travel. Hospitality in Malaysia was better and excellent than many long-haul countries for the Middle East tourists, followed by natural environment. From the overall implications of this study, it could be concluded that a strong relationship between government, tourism industry players, local authorities, private agencies and businesses should be fostered to ensure that tourists’ needs, especially Middle East tourists, are fulfilled. It is a known fact that Middle East tourists have a high taste. Therefore the various tourism industry players need to work hand in hand to improve all types of services provided to the Middle East tourists

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With the fast development in ICT, the need for digital maturity becomes increasingly important. Measuring ICT maturity has always been on the infrastructural, applications, and ICT Policy. Taking a different orientation, the present study views ICT maturity of the individual users vis a vis the ICT tools as a solid foundation for successful digital maturity in a digital economy. This paper aims at determining the level of digital maturity among ICT-Mobile Phone (smart phone and internet) users by looking at the intensity of usage of smart phone applications (apps) and functions and the level of indispensability of internet and its related characteristics and functions. A nationwide survey was conducted among 2124 respondents based on the population ratio of the main ethnic groups in Malaysia. Data were analysed using SPPS 20.0 and both descriptive and inferential analysis are applied to analyse the data. The results revealed that the smart phone functions, facilities, and apps which are mostly used include social media (Facebook/ Twitter), instant messaging (WhatsApp/Viber/Skype), Wi-Fi, downloading apps from 'Play Store' or 'App Store' and camera. The findings also indicated that a fast internet service, availability of internet at anytime and anywhere and the access to internet E-ISSN: 2289-1528 https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2014-3001-02 Jurnal Komunikasi Malaysian Journal of CommunicationJilid 30(1) 2014: 22-34 23content without limit are the most indispensable characteristics and functions of internet for the users. The results implied that the respondents are above average in digital maturity in terms of intensity of usage of ICT-Mobile Phone functions, facilities, and apps. Meanwhile, their ICT-Mobile Phone engagement seemsto be high in digital maturity for the indispensable characteristics and functions of internet. The findings of this study have implications on ICT system and apps providers on the needs of the users. This is crucial in order to achieve digital maturity which will prepare the grounds for digital inclusion in a digital economy.

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Newspapers are a particularly important tool for the communication of government agenda, policies and issues to the general public. An informed public makes for better democracy and active citizen participation, with citizens able to make well-informed decisions about the governance of their nation. This paper observes the role of Malaysian mainstream newspapers in the facilitation of citizen participation to exercise their political rights and responsibilities through a critical discourse analysis on newspaper coverage of the New Economic Model (NEM), a landmark policy of the Najib Administration. It is revealed that Malaysian newspapers carry an ideology that depicts the government and the elite in positions of power. The government, the Prime Minister, the NEM and the NEAC report were foregrounded and positively highlighted. Although many of the articles contained calls for the people to prepare and support the NEM, issues pertaining to the people and the importance of the support of the people were frequently being backgrounded or left out of the newspapers. News reporting should facilitate understanding of government agenda, because the news media is a main avenue of communication between a government and its people. The failure of the press to inform, communicate and stimulate citizen participation among the people could very well prove to be damaging toward the credibility of the local press. The mainstream news press should provide access and support citizen participation by recognising that they are a valuable resource for citizen decision-making and for democracy.