KUALA LUMPUR - They used to earn tens of thousands a month, with some pulling in several million ringgit to slander Pakatan Harapan (PH) and trumpet the virtues of Barisan Nasional (BN).

But on May 9‎ - right after the historic general election which saw BN losing power, the gravy train stopped.‎

Now, the keyboards of the legion of cybertroopers who were on the payroll of United Malays National Organisation (Umno) - the lynchpin party of BN - are largely untouched, after their political paymasters were thrown out of Putrajaya.

It is learnt that a number of these online activists were paid by the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) under the Prime Minister’s Office. Jasa has since been disbanded by the PH government.

Others were paid by businessmen connected to former Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak or other Umno leaders.

With their “masters” on the ropes, some of these armchair warriors are now attempting to cosy up to PH.

“Now, our coordinators have all gone missing. There has been no word from the headquarters since GE14. Some have gone to PH, some (of us), we were just freelancers during the elections,” one Umno online activist, who requested anonymity, told The Malaysian Insight.

“But, there are still some who are being paid by their divisions or branches, or by a senior leader with deep pockets.”

Ever since social media became a powerful medium of information, Umno has aggressively gone out to court an army of cybertroopers.

In 2012, the party formally organised these online activists under its information technology bureau and new media unit. The bureau was headed by Pontian Member of Parliament Ahmad Maslan. BN deputy strategic communications director Eric See-To also oversaw the social media operatives.

Another big name tied to the online activists was Mr Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, who was on Jasa’s panel of experts.

The cybertroopers' mission was to explain BN’s policies, counter PH's criticism and wage psychological warfare through the internet.

On November 4, Umno’s IT bureau held its biggest rally of cybertroopers at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, which attracted more than 3,500 people.

Although the party has never acknowledged paying these online activists, it is an open secret that they were amply compensated.

One cybertrooper said they were grouped into informal teams with coordinators who determined the issues or trends they wrote about, which were decided by senior Umno leaders.

The activist said they were paid according to a scale set by the IT bureau.

“Umno cybertroopers have gotten tens, and even hundreds, of thousands,” said former party blogger Syarul Ema Rena Abu Samah, also known as Ratu Naga, in an interview with Malay daily Sinar Harian.

“There are some who received millions. One received RM3 million for a project related to the elections,” said Ms Syarul Ema Rena, who switched to PH in 2014.

The payment depended on each activist’s specialty, with bloggers and website owners paid a different amount than a social media provocateur.

Now that the cash flow has stopped, Umno’s online mercenaries are giving up whatever territory they managed to carve out when the gravy train was going full steam ahead. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT