Category: Idiot Overlords

I read a recent article where the head of Talent Corp, Johan Mahmood Merican, asked the Malaysians overseas to ignore the race rhetoric in the press and to focus on what the government policies and actions are.

Unfortunately, the problem happens when these race rhetorics are used as excuses and translated into government affirmative action for the majority – a world leading Malaysian innovation.

I can fully appreciate the daunting task that lies ahead for Talent Corp to try to woo exasperated and dejected Malaysians overseas, to come back to serve the nation. I see them doing some good things in terms of the kinds of programmes that they are doing to achieve this.

However, as long as there are no massive structural and institutional changes in the country, keeping these people here would become a problem. So, I hope that Talent Corp will look into changing things internally in order to keep people here, which is a far more important problem.

There is no point in wooing back 750 talented Malaysians if they end up leaving after that.

Another aspect of the issue that they should look into is the existing talent already within the country – and how these people can be further nurtured. As it stands, the present structural issues within the country are an impediment to our local talent. So, these people are being pushed out as new ones are being brought in to replace them.

Talent Corp has certainly got its work cut out for it and I hope that they actually have enough talent within themselves, to carry through the necessary reforms to drive Malaysia into becoming a modern and developed nation.

I’ve been reading some on-line news and commentary about the whole Christian fiasco sparked by a Utusan headline. To me, a warning letter and a meeting is a really weird way of handling the issue considering the kinds of actions meted out to others in the past for far less sinister reporting.

In my humble opinion, this kind of double-standards will just inflame the middle-class educated public even further and show everyone that the rules are applied equally to everyone – some more equally than others. If the BN government wants to project the right image of a fair and just government, it needs to do more.

I don’t know what is a suitable action but some things that the BN government can consider doing, based on past precedent – lock the reporter up under ISA, suspend the newspaper for a few weeks, sack the editors, or even rescind the publishing license for the newspaper. Not that I think it would repair any of the damage done, but it would at least show that the BN government is doing something about it.

I cannot even begin to imagine a stern letter and a meeting being all that is meted out if the same reporting was carried by some other newspaper.

Weird.

I was once told by a very senior salesman that the key to selling any product is – convince, confuse and cow (in that order).

First, we try to convince our potential customers on the virtues of the product. This works on a logical level as we try to rationalise the advantages that our product has against the competition. However, this can only work if our product has useful attributes, which is rarely the case. Therefore, onto step two.

Second, we try to confuse our potential customers on the facts. This works by driving all logic out the window and disrupting the thought process of the customer. We twist things and re-orientate views in such a way as to paint our product in better light. This is what marketing tries to do all the time. When this fails, there is still step three.

Third, we try to cow our potential customers into buying. This works on an emotional level and exploits the fears of the customer in order to frighten them into buying. Threaten their lives, or their childrens’ lives often works because people become irrational when faced with these threats. The insurance industry works this way.

Our dearest Prime Minister said today: “I see the MCA sending the message that the Chinese cannot support the opposition and at the same time expect strong representation in the government. They have to choose. If they want the opposition, they must sacrifice the party in government. If they want a bigger say to serve their interests, they have to support a Barisan Nasional component party.”

So, when I read something like this, I think that our dearest PM is now desperate. He has failed to convince the people, and the people are not sufficiently confused to miss the point. Therefore, he has had to resort to scare tactics in order to threaten the local Malaysian Chinese community like this.

It smacks of desperation and the trouble with the third tactic is that, it can backfire horribly. When you threaten your customer, they either break-down and buy your product or they take out their guns and shoot you where it hurts. I do understand that threats are a legitimate tactic in politics, but this is risky.

Unlike the older generation, who are quite convinced that having representation in government is important, the younger generation are beginning to see that impotent representation is as good as no representation. Like I told a friend a while ago – every threat is also a challenge. It all depends on the point-of-view.

I hope that our PM realises this and puts a positive spin on this before things really get out of control and the local Chinese community actually take him up on his challenge – to vote the MCA out of government.

PS: I thought that the MCA had already lost the Chinese vote for ages.

I am not an RPK fan-boy. If you read my blog regularly, you will see that I both support and criticise his views. That’s because I am a thinking man.

A lot has been said by many parties on his recent public admission on local television. I have been asked about this by some friends as well. I thought that I should put my personal take on his actions.

I must say that I do not know RPK. The only time I have spoken to him was to ask him a tough question that he was unable to answer – at a SABM forum.

There are those who think that he has sold out and is now back-stabbing the opposition. These people are brainless to say the least. Think about it for a moment. If he has sold out, then this is definitely not the worst thing that he can do. He can do a lot more damage to the opposition. Do you think that RPK does not have dirt on the opposition leaders?

There are those who think that he is back-stabbing the opposition now. Personally, I think that the opposition are doing more damage to themselves from within than without. The opposition regularly shoot themselves in the foot and kill each other. They do not need the likes of RPK to do them any harm which they are not already doing to themselves.

There are those who think that he is lying or has been lying all this time. Honestly, RPK keeps telling everyone to not believe what he says but to take in the information and process it for ourselves. He tells everyone to use our own brains and not to rely on him. Everyone has a bias, even RPK. His words are not gospel.

So, this is what I think of his actions.

I do not know what his motivations are but I am sure that if he was out to kill the opposition, they would have died a horrible death. RPK is just being RPK – the closet anarchist – and we need to learn how to deal with it.

He has a role to play, and he is playing it very well in bringing about change, not just in our political system, but also in our political mind-set. Otherwise, the change will not be sustainable and we will fall back into the same traps again.

I hope that he continues to stir the pot.

I read this article in TMI and almost puked.

PKR wants Pakatan Rakyat (PR) partners to share the burden of contesting in hard-to-win seats in Sarawak during the coming general election to avoid a repeat of the just-concluded state polls.

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli told reporters today that he will raise the matter during the PR secretariat meeting tomorrow.

He pointed out that PKR had been forced to stretch its resources thin during the April 16 state polls when it contested in a whopping 49 state seats, a move that had likely contributed to its failure to win in more than just three constituencies.

The party, he revealed, had originally only been intent on contesting in 25 seats where it felt its presence was strong but had to field candidates in an additional 24 ‘impossible-to-win seats when neither one of its PR partners were willing to take on the challenge.

“Even SNAP was not willing to reach a compromise and only wanted to field its candidates in the areas where PKR felt it had a chance of scoring.

“We did not have a choice,” he told a press conference to reveal the party’s first analysis of the Sarawak polls.

Do you get it?

There are some seriously flawed people within PKR with a sense of entitlement. Let’s ignore for the moment, that PKR were only willing to give SNAP three seats and also took a few winnable seats away from DAP. However, let’s just look at the fact that they ran in 49 seats – almost double that which they had originally planned for.

This is the problem with the political scene in Malaysia. If you do not have the wherewithal to run so many seats, don’t. If nobody else is willing to pick up the slack, then don’t bother. There is no need to run in seats just for the sake of running in seats, particularly if they are not winnable seats.

You need to pick your battles – in order to win the war.

Run only in the seats where you think you stand a chance, and then pour everything that you have in there. If PKR had chosen to run only in 25 seats, it would have been able to double it’s concentration on each seat and possibly, ensure victory in a few more seats (e.g. Senadin).

However, it had to field candidates all over the place. This makes me wonder on the kind of candidates whom they actually chose to stand on a PKR ticket in an area. It is the same kind of mistake that they made in the last GE, random candidates in random seats.

PKR’s strategists need replacing, and their strategies need re-thinking. Maybe they should sign up for a Blue-Ocean Strategy course. 🙂