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.