It was reported that the government is spending big bucks to get positive publicity for the administration overseas. A number of companies, including renowned international public affairs and media relations company Apco Worldwide, are pitching for a new round of government-related work believed to be worth some RM20 million. The report predicts that Apco will likely be awarded the contract.
Only days ago I told a senior BN politician that using spin doctors and PR specialists serving mainly corporations is one of the main faults often committed by politicians. Political PR and corporate PR are not apple to apple.
In the case of BN, the coalition needs to practice common sense politics based on the principles of fairness, justice, rule of law and good governance to reverse the slide of their political fortune.
Anything less than giving back the power to decide to the people is not going to help change the prevailing negative public perception against the coalition.
The BN government must not only return the public institutions to the people, they must also be accountable for the power to rule entrusted by the people. If not, sooner or later the people will realize that this prevalent political model is not beneficial to them.
UMNO cannot hope to play its racist game all the time when faced with real political challenges and try to rally the Malay community support for the party. The fact that the party had lost a massive Malay support since 1999 is a sign that the erosion of more support from the Malay electorates is possible.
I told the politician that a good leader must get closer and listen to the voices of the middle ground. The middle ground abhors senseless and irresponsible politics.
What is the use of spending RM20 million on spin doctors?
BN/UMNO leaders must understand that a real change can only be implemented if there is real sincerity and political will. Other than that, no amount of spinning or positive publicity is going to help the coalition.
They should use the money to help the homeless and poor of all races.
20 comments:
To be a true Malaysian we should scrap chinese and Indian school and just have one Malaysian school that teaches in one language only. Then we move on from there. Keep it simple
TrueMalaysian
KKP,
That's what I've been saying always.....
"Help the poor. Help them to get out of their predicment...!!!"
But still.... millions are poured into unnessary projects.
Why.........?????
Every year the goverment allocates millions for the poor.
Yet they "are" still as poor...!!!
Where the "bloody hell" did the money go..?????????????
It's a sin to sin...!!
Whether the money is well spent depends on the purpose of the PR campaign. If it is confined really to neutralising "the opposition’s impact outside Malaysia by reaching out to opinion makers in countries deemed important to Malaysia", then it is money down the drain.
But if it is to raise the profile of Msia to the international audience so as to raise confidence and visibility of the country to investors, then it might be worth the resources incurred.
However, good PR is just "form" cannot make up for lack of "substance". The basis to sell the country must be good governance, efficiency, integrity, etc.
I also have a two small comments about Kay Peng's point that "anything less than giving back the power to decide to the people is not going to help change the prevailing negative public perception against the coalition". Firstly, the PR campaign is apparently outward facing, ie. the international audience. The people have the power in the vote, but the issue is that people's voting mentality is skewed, or they are voting for lesser evils between the parties.
Secondly, we should be cautious about terms such as "giving power to the people". It's based on the assumption that the people are cohesive enough to want the same thing. I doubt it's the case in Msia
At this point of time BN is sick, mentally, intellectually and spiritually.
It is unable to distinguish between right and wrong, freedom and oppression.
Neither does it feel the pulse of the people. It is in a different dimension.
Imagine, it does not even believe that the people are worried about the growing crime rate!!
Oh yeah...!
Another question...
Is it so.... important what the world thinks of Najib & gang rather than what we, "Malaysians" think of them.....????????
Your own "Malaysians" first..., helo !!!
Why must "money" be used when you can just use your "International Minister" to do his job.
What are they for then...??????
One always wonder why all BN cronies are so filthy rich....we know now!
Well Kay Peng, understand that JJ has been 'approved' by Washington as ambassador to US will be sworn in soon at ministerial level. PR and using lobbyists does pay.... it seems.
True Malaysian,
I agree, we should have just a single national stream. We should do away with the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera dichotomy too? We should treat all Malaysians fairly?
What say you?
Restoring democracy in Perak wil, go a long way on restoring BN's tattered image.
BUBARKAN DUN PERAK!
And call for fresh elections. Let the good people of Perak decide once and for all whether they want Nizar or Zambry as MB. Sivakumar or Ganesan as Speaker.
I dont mind the 20M RM spent. APCO seemed to be a respectable and reputable operation. I think it can come up with suggestion for credible policies. For one thing, there are better brains in APCO than the retarded civil servants who are doing the planning for the govt. These are just a bunch of second rate monkeys ( I apologise to the monkeys for using them as comparison.) These civil servants monkeys are probably the ones leaking the information. They felt threatened.
My bigger concern is that these idiotic civil servants monkeys will thwart and subvert whatever good that may come out, forcing the country to status quo.
Please keep pursuing scandals like the Mongolian woman grisly murder, PKFZ, Toyoland, Kugan's and Teoh's murder/death etc....
There is a bunch of powerful evil force in BN trying to divert the rakyat attention from these scandals.
Keep up the pressure, Khoo.
You did a great job. Remember, u r not alone.
All this big talk about 1Malaysia is one hell of a humbug, it smells of the same old doctrine of the Umnoputras in a redefined format, not to mention the millions poured in for the publicity stunt. This concept is only a fading dream that will never materialize. Until we witness total integration of all races in schools, politics and in public life, 1Malaysia will just fade away as the rest of the other concepts.
Get rid of all the racial political parties, practice more meritocracy and transparency. Revamp the whole of the civil service.
re kkp 10.40am and true malaysia:
yes, fully agree with kkp. somewhat agree with true malaysian too.
obama is half-black. he speaks the english language (not some african language) and he is a christian (at least i think so). so we cannot really use obama as a reference case. at least it is not apple to apple.
i guess, going by true malaysia's argument, all malaysians should be muslims too?
and all malaysians study only in bahasa melayu? no more english and chinese and tamil classes. ban all english and tamil and chinese books too. no?
semua bentuk komunikasi (tulisan, percakapan dll...) dalam bahasa melayu juga? haramkam sebarang bahan dalam bahasa 'asing' baik tulisan, percakapan, televisyen, radio dll...?
ayuh...marilah kami semua bangga sebagai katak dibawah tempurung. tak apa, asal kami semua dapat 'mempertahankan' kedaulatan bahasa kebangsaan kami warga malaysia - iaitu bahasa melayu.
(on another note, personally i think the level bahasa melayu usage in our daily lives can be increased from what it is today; especially between non-malays themselves).
ayuh...mari semua.
4RAKYAT.
I say it again that Malaysia will be on sale when JJ becomes ambassador.
KKP just watch, the UMNO/BN is desperate to hang on to power and are willing to do anything as the end justify the means.
UMNO/BN will forgo national interest but will be trapped into American foreign policy and as American stooge for the survival of 1 person that is most hated in Malaysia.
PAKATAN must bring the issue up and look at the hidden agenda of the appointment as there is no LKY in Malaysia who will say no for the sake of the people.
What a scary future of a nation.
BN, rather Umno has been in power long enough to know what it takes to remain in power....all they have to do is just placate the needs/whimps of the masses who are basically simple rural folks who dont care two hoots about meritocracy, nep, english language, liberalisation of investment poicies,corruption, rule of law etc that doesnt affect them......do you think BN/Umno needs to listen to the middle class population who happens to pay the most taxes....after all the rural masses also has the same voting rights ....
On paper, its 20 million but in actual fact, its only probably 10 million. Where the other 10 million goes...you and I know.
This is just another way to make some fast bucks or ios it part of the financial rescuse money which was announced by Najlis?
BN has to continue feeding their ever hungry wolves to stay in power. To BN...who cares about how the people thinks of BN? End of the day, they knows they can win when they use the people's money to distribute to voters ala Manek Urai style.
Keep it simple - 1 Malaysia should stand for one race - Malaysian race with no identification of different language, name,religion, economic wellbeing. Start with closure of all these divisive vernacular school.
True Malaysian
Spending RM20M now could well turn into billions in the future for mere PR works. The people want accountability and good governance. They will know whether the BN Govt is sincerely, truthfully, and humbly serving them.
Do we want to pally with the No: 1 nation of the world, or be the 1Malaysia ringing so loud and clear these days? Already millions are being spent on the slogan daily within our shores. When is the white-washing going to end?
I don't think you have an understanding of what PR really does. You confuse it with spin doctoring, which real PR is not. For the full argument go to http://www.maverick.co.id/pr-communications/2009/07/a-corporate-consultants-spin-on-pr/
I dont know who the BN appoint to do their spin. But I suspect so there is.
Isn't it obvious that Najib is not genuine in what he says. He appears to be just reading/memorising scripts. Maybe he needs to appoint acting consultant from Hollywood as well.
I am (or most of my friends/people for that matter) is just not convinced.
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