president Abdul Hadi Awang Arrogantly yours… Figment of your Imagination Ahmad Zamri Asa’ad Khuzaini – may lose his deposit

PKR kecewa terhadap kenyataan Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang yang menyifatkan sesetengah calon PKR bermasalah.

Presiden PAS pada ceramah di Kampung Tebakang di Marang malam tadi, berkata mengikut maklumat, mereka khuatir ada antara calon PKR menjadi pengedar pil kuda selain mendakwa ada calon yang meletakkan gambar pemimpin komunis seperti Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin dan Karl Marx di markas mereka.

Azan berkata kenyataan seumpama itu tidak seharusnya keluar, terutama daripada pemimpin tertinggi PAS.

“Politik matang negara harus kita pertahankan dan sekali gus menunjukkan teladan yang baik kepada rakyat Malaysia akan datang, dan mungkin ramai lagi pemimpin-pemimpin muda akan tampil dan kita harus meletakkan asas yang baik ketika berpolitik,” katanya.

Ketika calon Barisan Nasional (BN) Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani menyerahkan kertas pencalonannya di pusat penamaan calon di Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Aminuddin Baki, kenangan di zaman persekolahan di situ kembali segar di ingatannya.

Johari, 49, yang juga Pengerusi Penyelaras BN Titiwangsa, berkata beliau merupakan anak jati Kampung Pandan yang menuntut di sekolah berkenaan dari 1977 hingga 1981.

Beliau berasa bangga dan terharu semasa menyerahkan borang penamaan calon kepada Pegawai Pengurus Pilihan Raya Abdul Halim Ismail di dewan sekolah itu untuk bertanding kerusi Parlimen Titiwangsa.

“Sekolah inilah yang menjadikan siapa saya hari ini. Daripada seorang anak kampung setinggan di Kampung Pandan sehingga menjadi ahli korporat.

“Antara kenangan yang tidak dapat saya lupakan ketika bersekolah di sini ialah rambut saya digunting oleh guru disiplin,” katanya kepada pemberita.

Selain Johari antara bekas pelajar sekolah tersebut termasuklah Pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, Menteri Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani Datuk Seri Noh Omar, ahli korporat Tan Sri Rozali Ismail, tokoh budaya Profesor Dr Siti Zainon Ismail dan pengarah filem terkenal Datuk Yusof Haslam.

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Johari menambah beliau akan berkongsi pengalaman membesar di Kampung Pandan, berjaya dalam pelajaran dan penglibatan dalam dunia korporat untuk memberikan inspirasi kepada belia di kawasan Parlimen Titiwangsa untuk menjadi individu yang berjaya.

Parlimen Titiwangsa menyaksikan pertandingan satu lawan satu di antara Abdul Ghani dan calon Pas Ahmad Zamri Asa’ad Khuzaimi, seorang peguam.

Pada Pilihan Raya Umum 2008 calon Pas Allahyarham Dr Lo’ Lo’ Mohamad Ghazali memenangi kerusi Parlimen Titiwangsa apabila mengalahkan calon Barisan Nasional Datuk Aziz Jamaluddin Mohd Tahir dengan majoriti 1,972 undi. Beliau meninggal dunia pada Julai 2011.

What really irks me the most is that such people, despite your prompting them, reasoning with them or even pleading with them are predictable to a fault: they will have to speak as surely as night follows day every time they find themselves in such a situation, and will continue to speak till everyone else in the room shuts up or turns away in sheer frustration. Little do they realize (or perhaps care about) the impression they create through their determined, more often than not completely uncalled for verbal jousting. The next time the twain meet, the audience, if intelligent, is better prepared for the ensuing verbal duel and either completely ignores the person or walks away from the discussion with ‘its  perhaps better for all of us to fight another day’ writ large on their faces.

What worries, is that the number of such people that I seem to be bumping into – as I pass through life – seems to be increasing exponentially. I meet such people at work, in my professional circles, in the housing society, when I am on holiday and even at parent-teacher meetings. What such people fail to realize that this rarely helps accomplish anything other than create a fragile equilibrium that is disturbed by the slightest tremor.

Is the predictability of their behavior, and their desperate need to be heard a sign of their competitiveness, their intelligence or their mediocrity? Aren’t the brilliant supposed to be somewhat unpredictable and eccentric? Is this a reflection of some childhood insecurity – as my psychiatrist friends would say – when their parents never allowed them to get a word in edgeways? Or is this a veiled arrogance that makes them believe the world must sit and learn at their feet even when they know precious little about the subject at hand? Whatever the case may be, there is no denying that very few things infuriate a thinking person more than coming across or having to co-exist with such an individual in his / her immediate vicinity – a fact that is fast becoming the case in most walks of life.

The new DAP logo, if Guan Eng gets his way

 

UMNO and DAP: the mature and the immature

 By Steve Roads

Recent political events bring into sharp focus the fundamental differences in crisis management between DAP and Umno.

When DAP faced a slight predicament, it resorted to shedding tears and being emotional.

When UMNO faced a major upheaval, it just went ahead and re-invented itself.

Therein lies the difference between political immaturity and political maturity.

The DAP drama began to unfold recently when the Registrar of Societies announced the non-recognition of the party elections held in December last year for positions in its Central Executive Committee due to some discrepancies.

Incensed, Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng told the media yesterday: “The DAP CEC in its meeting tonight decided that RoS must revoke its letter not recognising the office-bearers in the CEC by 3pm tomorrow on Friday.”

(That is already a contradiction. How can an unrecognised committee meet? Surely such a meeting is illegal, and therefore its demand cannot have legitimacy or clout).

DAP stalwart and Lim’s father, Lim Kit Siang, was also there when Guan Eng spoke to the press. Kit Siang told the media: “I want to confess I shed tears.”

The younger Lim further confessed:“Many of our members shed tears. How do you explain to your voters?” DAP Chairman Karpal Singh also admitted to being emotional over the incident.

Compare DAP’s crisis response to UMNO’s crisis response.  UMNO faced a major challenge in 1987. In that year, the courts ruled that UMNO was an illegal organisation due to the existence of several unregistered branches. That was an offence under the Societies Act of 1966.

But UMNO leaders did not rave and rant about the court ruling. It did not hold a press conference and condemn the judge nor demand that the law be amended. They did bnot take to the streets.  Instead, under Tun Mahathir, a new party called UMNO BARU was registered. Over time, the BARU was dropped, and UMNO became whole again.

Apart from the differences in the approach of UMNO and DAP to challenges, let’s look at the DAP ‘grouse’ more closely. Guan Eng said that in issuing the letter dated April 17, 2013, just two days before nomination day, the ROS intended to “kill off DAP’s electoral prospects” in the general election.

He added:”..This is completely disgraceful, (DAP supporters will ) show their anger at the ballot box. We want BN to feel the anger of not just our supporters, but also right-thinking Malaysians,” he said

Slow down, Guan Eng, not so fast. What did you say about right-thinking Malaysians? Perhaps you were referring to non-thinking Malaysians.

Because all right-thinking Malaysians know that nobody is above the law. And that if the law is breached, the violator must either pay the penalty.

All right-thinking Malaysians know it is wrong to place one’s own infractions before the feet of UMNO.

All right-thinking Malaysians know it is wrong to shoot from the hip. The complaints of wrongdoing did not come from outside but they all came from party members.  Are you saying, Guan Eng, that some party members are more equal than others? That ROS should ignore the complaints from some members and listen only to those who are close and dear to you?

It is clear Guan Eng, you are blinded by rage and arrogance. You have shown that you have little respect for the law of the land, even less respect for your party constitution and no respect at all for your ordinary members.

Surely they will show their anger at the ballot box–at your expense.

In the fall of 2009 I took a class at Harvard called “Making of a Politician.” The four-month class was taught by one of the lead campaign managers for the American Democratic Party and focused on the dos and don’t of winning an election. The primary dos, according to the Professor (who had multiple electoral victories in his portfolio) were the following:

When running for election a candidate needs to (primarily):

1. Build a narrative about your life (something that focuses on how you rose from the bottom up).
2. Perfect this story and learn it like the back of your hand
3. Repeat this story every where you go (especially to media channels and any rally you address)
4. If someone tries to deter you from your ‘message’ aka story above, just find a way to repeat it, using different words.

Note: This is the backbone of any successful campaign.

If Narendra Modi took this class, he would be a topper. His message is simple “I have built Gujarat from the ground up (similar to his own story), and now I want to move this from Gujarat’s success story to India’s success story.” Rather than highlighting examples from across the spectrum he picks and chooses his narrative carefully. He speaks about economic development (echoing the Gujarati entrepreneurial spirit) and infrastructure development. In order to woo the female vote, he even throws in how he has helped women progress. He doesn’t overwhelm his audience with too many examples of success but instead chooses to go in to intricate detail for the few. His topics don’t stretch too far out unless asked specifically (like speaking about health indicators or wage parity). He sticks to his story, repeats when needed and does not deter from it.

If Rahul Gandhi on the other hand, took this class, he wouldn’t fair as well. Rahul unfortunately has his message all over the place. From buzzing bees at the CII conference to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in election rallies, he has a host of topics to choose from and he chooses them all. Partly this issue arises because his political voyage has been inconsistent. When he was his forties he emerged as a leader in Congress’s youth wing, then he started getting in to the parties core work without much history or credibility. Soon he was leading charge in the UP election. Now he is in the 2014 election team. He makes an effort to portray himself as a man of the grassroots but belongs to the top echelon of Indian society. Rahul needs to get his story straight and concise. In fact, most political leaders, in addition to Modi, have already down this (perhaps intuitively)

If you notice how most political leaders address development to win voters confidence, then you will see that they are often focused on four core areas: infrastructure, employment creation, women’s empowerment and accountability/government efficiency. Rarely will you hear speeches about progress in education on improvement in healthcare. There is an implicit assumption amongst the political class that people are concerned about only infrastructure or employment over education or health.

The class I took at Harvard was four years ago though. A lot has changed in politics. We were taught four years ago that sticking to you message was important in speeches but political communication world is no longer limited to speeches. You now have twitter, facebook, sms, mms, 24/7 news media and so much more. Maybe in this changing world the Gandhi approach of picking all topics is better than the Modi approach of sticking to the story? Only time will tell…

A Little Learning Is A Dangerous Thing

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again.

Fired at first sight with what the muse imparts,

In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,

While from the bounded level of our mind,

Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;

But more advanced, behold with strange surprise

New distant scenes of endless science rise!

So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,

Mount o’er the vales and seem to tread the sky,

The eternal snows appear already pass’d,

And the first clouds and mountains seem the last:

But, those attain’d, we tremble to survey

The growing labours of the lengthen’d way,

The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,

Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

-          Alexander Pope