The losing war game

Dear Di,

Politics is the game of perception.

I may be wrong here, but it seems that in this war of perception, opponents of Barisan Nasional is very much ahead in winning the hearts and minds of the urban folks.

The opponents here are not just confined to DAP, PAS and PKR but also non-political groups, which for some reasons do not want to see Barisan Nasional in control of the Government anymore.

BN losing in this game?

Their numbers maybe small, but their untiring attacks on the Government via the Internet and other media channels have caused major damage to BN reputation, especially among urban dwellers.

The deteriorating situation is further compounded by the failure of BN communication strategists to curtail the problem, leaving the Government almost defenseless against the onslaught.

Simply put, BN has lost the battle in the urban zone.

BN leaders, including PM Najib must surely know that no matter how huge a mountain is - the daily chippings of its mighty walls would eventually cost the mountain to collapse.

The popularity of BN is fast peeling away and its opponents now are aiming all their heavy artilleries towards the rural areas, whose populations are still ardent BN supporters.

It would not be long for them to make inroads, as BN seems to remain clueless and at time headless as to what they should do to check the enemies. And millions spent on A&P went down the drain as far as winning the urban votes.

BN had one time possessed a powerful weapon – the MSM (Main Stream Media). Alas, this cutting edge weapon is no longer powerful as before. BN opponents have successfully neutralized it by convincing the people that the MSM is just a propaganda tool for the Government to control public opinion. To make matter worse, editors were often dictated to publish rubbish instead of quality contents by powerful warloads controlling the media.

Half of the battle was won largely because BN blunders and the other half of the battle were countered by creating online news portals. Loads and loads of lies, half-truths and fictions were rushed down the throats of cyber news reading community in the form of gospel truths. In the end, nobody can tell the different anymore.

Now, everyone tend to believe what is written in the print and online by the enemies of BN. Nobody bothers to verify the facts anymore. The PM, Ministers, MPs, State Assemblymen, politicians have been accused of doing many things on the Net and most believe them, including members of their own political parties! But, hardly any of them takes the culprits to court. And those who do, quickly settled them out of court after some payments of undisclosed amounts were agreed upon and apology.

My only hope is that this political disease do not spread its ugly wing into the Malaysian economy because the impact would be most disastrous and too painful to bear.

Najib and The Cabinet... Please be smart

Dear Di,

I guess I have writer's block these past weeks.  There were many things to jot down but words simply refused to flow. Furthermore, the need to work and support the family had to come first and December is simply a busy month.

But, today I decided to jot down a few things that I feel strongly unhappy. Uppermost is of course the recent announcements of increasing rates - electricity tariff, assessment and now toll rates. Maybe it is wrong to assume, but my guts feeling is that Government is deseperate to increase rates as the coffers are drying up.

Since PM Najib came to power, he was seen spending billions of ringgit to inculcate feel good feelings among the people. Billions of ringgit were alloted to pump the economy and creating spillover effects. Cash handouts were given to low income groups. Some claimed it was to win votes but I believed it was more to pump up the domestic economy. Perhaps, a weak economy can be detrimental to the survival of Barisan Nasional Government then.

But now that the general election is over and the Government has been retained, Najib and the Cabinet has to look ahead to ensure that their Government is capable of ruling the nation until the next general election without busting the economy.

I guess after a hard look, they realised that they could not continue to spoon feed the people with subsidies. If they do, there is a likelihood that this nation would follow the path of Greece - spending more than the revenue generated.

Hence, the need to cut down on subsidies. The people have to pay more. Pay GST.

The fact is I don't like it. But, as a citizen I have to adhere to it. Furthermore, I voted for this Government and I don't like to think I have made a mistake.

On the other hand, Najib and his men must also be smart in addressing public opinion. Currently, the communication strategy sucks big time. I see that they spend millions to convince the public why GST is necessary and would not be a huge  burden to the people and blah..blah...blah.

They don't have do it. Emulate the past leaders who did things intellegently. Rates went up but there were no ugly protests. Make the people understand but at the same time the Government should also show that it practises austerity in the administration.

Do not go around and be seen wasting public funds. And I want to see this Government continue to stay in power after the next GE. Do not give the opposition the opportunity to wrest power because the current adminisration is seen to be indifferent to the suffering of the people.

I feel the first thing Najib should do is to announce that the Govenment would trim its 2014 budget. Prudent spending and minus excesses. Expenditure budget should be reduced significantly and more budget set aside for projects that can generate revenue for the country.

At the same time, Najib should ask the private sector to increase the salaries of the employees by reducing some of their profits. The practise of announcing billion ringgit profits should be stopped and some of the profits should be set aside and given to employees in the form of increment.

More often than not, the employees in the private sector are not well protected by the Government although they are a significant work force to the economy. Most companies are only interested in making ugly huge profits but are not interested in rewarding employees.

After all happy employees bring good financial results.