PM needs better public relations strategy

To even consider that a sitting Malaysian prime minister, with the entire government machinery at his disposal, with such tight media laws, and federal control and in some cases, even ownership of newspapers, television channels and radio, could possibly suffer from continual bad press, would be an idea so unthinkable and absurd.

It would be like taking a photo with Mark Zuckerberg in his office and calling it the Twitter headquarters. Oh wait.

The PM’s media team should really keep three things in mind when planning his media strategy.

One: people are quick to pick on stupid things said.

Two: stupid things said spread really fast on social media.

Three: attempts to cover things that spread really fast on social media should be smarter than the aforementioned stupid thing said, or it would repeat the loop, only with more scorn poured into it.

For example, when the world is combating a global terrorist threat spearheaded by a group so vile, even al-Qaeda considers them deviant, the last thing you should do is use them as an example of virtue, hard work and persistence.

They could be the hardest working terrorist group in the world, beheading more people than the Japanese Occupation soldiers and launching more YouTube videos than Kanye West, but seriously, they’re the last people you should be extolling, at least not in an official government function.

Apart from outlandish examples, there’s also the need of being in sync, or at least appearing to be in sync with your rakyat.

When your rakyat is reeling from the price of oil increase, the last thing you should be quoted saying is a request for citizens to be more grateful of vegetable price drops.

Doing so also appears to pave the way for your ministers to say equally crazy stuff like asking people to plant vegetables to lower cost of living (seriously, how much terung and bendi you think we can grow in a terrace house? )

Before implementing something as serious as GST, perhaps some clear instructions would have been nice.

Would there be double-tax? How do you claim? How much damage are we really looking at?

Because most of the statements, advertisements and information disseminated only focused on what GST won’t be implemented on, that too in a rather misleading way.

The general impression sought to be given seemed to be, prices would not go up, and rather strangely, in fact, should go down.

So after close to a year of this sort of mental-gearing, the backlash from the public shouldn’t be totally unexpected, especially when prices of almost everything from hospital bills to prepaid phone plans, actually went up.

To add insult to injury, there was the persistent theme that a RM500 payout would make everything all right.

One of the positive effects of KBSM was it gave many Malaysians the ability to count. Not very well, but some. So the mathematics would need to add up.

While in some cases, such as prepaid phones, implementing GST actually would have benefited the consumer, the failure to explain this properly, or maybe the minister giving up halfway himself trying to understand it, gave the general Malaysian public the impression of that the government didn’t care, and in more ways than one, it would not have been such a misplaced assumption.

Then there’s the question of governmental audio-visual mismatch. The audio bytes sound good but the visual actions do not match the audio narrative, much like a badly translated Lord of The Rings pirate copy.

Again, in the age of the Internet, international news pieces are published alongside local ones, unlike in the yesteryears where The Daily Telegraph would only quite literally reach Malaysian shores by telegraph, giving ample time for a cover story; not these days.

Things don’t seem very believable for example if you promote moderation and give fiery speeches about tolerance while keeping mum on issues like minorities asked to leave the country or relocate their houses of worship.

While in most cases silence is said to be golden, at precarious junctures where a clear and stern, steady hand of leadership is required, silence is almost a sin.

You can’t on one hand preach coexistence while tolerating bigotry, or talk about austerity while purchasing a new jet. The “cakap” (talk) should be in direct correlation with the “bikin” (action).

Good public relations should also be about engaging the angry mob, not forming or supporting the formation of a cheerful feel good alternative.

If the lawyers are upset, engage the Malaysian Bar and take them head on. After all lawyers are not above reasoning, the entire vocation of law is about reasoning.

If Christians are upset with the government, engage them, not support an alternative body.

Of course, it is every individual’s right to be part of any association, but engaging a main body and winning them over would be far more beneficial to nation building and the government’s political interests.

Leadership in crises should also mean presence during crisis. With each passing crisis, it only seems to be an opportunity to distance rather than endear himself to the people.

With the floods, while it was commendable to go down, a case of infection left our prime minister sick.

When two of our planes went missing, the statements seemed more measured than consoling.

While previous prime ministers took a keen interest in our aviation sector, not much has been said by our prime minister despite MAS laying off the most employees in recent history and making drastic changes to the national company.

As the chief executive of the government, it was rather un-statesman-like to not show up at a forum designed to help dispel questions about another pressing national debate – 1MDB.

The fact that the former prime minister did show up, was asked to stop speaking, and coupled with the fact that the current one, only a few days earlier made mention of warrior blood and bravery, doesn’t quite bode well for burnishing a convincing public image.

Neither does choosing to attend a scheduled state visit as opposed to visiting an earthquake struck Sabah.

As leaders, it is as important to be seen leading as it is to lead. – June 9, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.