The powerful political marketing: hate and love emotions in Malaysian election?

The peddling of hate has been proven to be very effective in political marketing, especially when people are trapped in certain mindsets that determine their views.

SATURDAY, April 20, was a special day for about 80 of my ex-schoolmates and I, most of whom have known each other since starting out in primary school 51 years ago.

No, politics had nothing to do it. Nomination Day just happened to fall on our old boys’ reunion, planned months earlier.

But there was no relief from the pervasive political talk amidst the camaraderie and merriment.

Even the chef at the golf resort in Malacca where the gathering of the 58-year-olds were held, could not resist trying to campaign for the side he was supporting.

To my disbelief, the man who had only recently returned home after working in Germany for many years asked me point blank: “Who are you voting for, ah?”

With the whole country gripped by election fever and emotions running at all time highs, such manners can be expected before we cast our ballots for the mother of all political battles on May 5.

A day after the bash, as we were recovering from the after effects of the revelry, a friend who has seen the ups and downs of business shared his experiences in the insurance and multi-level marketing industries before heading back home.

Recalling his lucrative days of running a thriving insurance agency, he said the art of selling policies mostly relied on playing on the emotions of potential clients.

His formula was simple: Give 98% focus on emotions, 1% on product knowledge and 1% for other needed explanations to convince, including “convenient untruths”.

We soon ended up comparing the similarities of tactics used in the realm of politics.

An election, after all, is the final closing move in the marketing of political emotions to sway voters to one side or the other.

Emotions are mental reactions experienced as strong feelings directed toward a specific object, persons or situations.

The word can be traced to its Latin roots of movere (to move). Emotions move people to act in a certain way.

Like in the case of marketing products or services, three types of appeals – logical, ethical and emotional – are put across to political “customers”.

By right, the logical route based on reasoning should be the most appealing but is used the least, except in cases of party manifestos and presentation of performance “report cards”.

The simple reason for this is people don’t make rational decisions based on detailed information, careful analysis or conscious thought.

The ethical appeal is usually used in campaign messages to raise the profile of certain personalities and expose the unsuitability of others by disparaging them.

In business, the emotional appeal involves using greed, fear, envy, pride and shame, but in politics, it is the harnessing of primary emotions – happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust and fear, in addition to the most potent one, hate.

The peddling of hate has been proven to be very effective in political marketing, especially when people are trapped in certain mindsets that determine their views and decision-making.

In Malaysia, like elsewhere, political support is conditioned by up­bringing based on ethnicity, location (urban or rural), level of education or wealth and the shared belief of family members or friends.

Tragically, since the last general election, hate has been stoked steadily to the point where reason has little chance or participation in civil discourse.

Hate has become the norm in our political engagement, especially in cyber space, with our Hollywood icon Datuk Seri Michelle Yeoh as the latest hapless victim.

The 49-year-old actress was called “a traitor” to the Chinese race, running dog and pinned with other unpalatable labels by partisan cyber bullies just for attending a dinner in Port Klang organised by a group of Selangor Chinese businessmen in support of Barisan Nasional last week.





Two months ago, a young female Facebook user, who posted a YouTube video pledging support for one side, ended up being insulted with all sorts of derogatory names and even threatened with rape.

Don’t Malaysians have a choice or the right to support whoever they want anymore?

These days, one cannot log into Facebook without being drawn into some form of partisan political conversation.

Too much energy appears to be focused on emotionally-charged rants and sharing them with people who might not necessarily agree.

Instead of “de-friending” these people, I have taken to hiding posts that are deemed to be unworthy of sharing.

I read somewhere that this would automatically prompt Facebook to weed out posts from such people. It has not happened yet, though.

Hate is also being spread via e-mail and through SMSes and WhatsApp on mobile phones.

Like many others, I have been getting an endless stream of political messages designed to influence my vote, over the past month.

Enough already, please. In any case, my mind has already been made up. It was done some time ago, too.

> Associate Editor M. Veera Pandiyan values these words by Gautama Buddha: Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule

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Japan glorifies war criminals in annual visits toYasukuni Shrine!

Japan's frictions between neighbors have resurfaced after a group of 168 Japanese lawmakers on Tuesday paid their respects at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which glorifies war-dead including those guilty of atrocities. It was the first time in eight years that a group of over 100 Japanese politicians visited the shrine. On the same day, a fleet of Chinese marine surveillance vessels drove Japanese boats out of waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands, thwarting the provocative attempts of around 80 Japanese right wingers.

The South Korean government has issued a strongly worded complaint over the Japanese politicians' visit to the shrine. China and South Korea have shown their shared outrage over the Yasukuni Shrine issue, but Japan seems to have disregarded this.

There are not many extreme right wingers in Japan, but Japanese society has still been tilting further toward right-wing views.

These days, provocations have been coming from Japan's deputy prime minister, a group of over 100 lawmakers and the right wingers creating waves over the Diaoyu Islands issue.

The Chinese government is taking the lead in dealing with Japan. However, it has little leverage when dealing with various forces within Japan. This reality cannot be changed in the near future. This means the Chinese government's stance has to be tough. Chinese marine surveillance vessels have done a pretty good job on this occasion. Since the Diaoyu crisis broke out last year, the tough resistance of the Chinese government against Japan has made it the main force in safeguarding the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands.

The latest situation involving the Diaoyu Islands has demonstrated the contrast in terms of strength between China and Japan as well as the changing East Asia strategic arena.

The Yasukuni Shrine visits are evidence of Japan's reluctance to accept reality. Japanese society is becoming increasingly radical, but continues to take a careful approach in maritime conflicts with China.

Japan lacks a clear strategy in East Asia. Encountering China's rise, it hasn't formed a policy that helps it maximize its interests, and instead shows resentment and anxiety. Its alliance with the US cannot help it solve its own strategic dilemma.

The gradual decline in Japan's power is the reason for its lack of confidence.

Japan is like a marijuana smoker, who enjoys the excitement of the moment but is ultimately damaging itself at the same time. Japan will fall by itself. China doesn't need to launch fierce counterattacks. Instead, it can just express its firm stance to make Japan feel scared. 

China needs to create diplomatic leverage over Japan, which could help it express its determination when dealing with issues related to sovereignty and historical matters, and bring the Sino-Japanese conflict under control. - Global Times

Japan shrine visit angers South Korea

Taro Aso, Japan's deputy prime minister and finance minister, bows at the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo. Photograph: AFP/Getty

South Korea has abruptly cancelled a trip to Tokyo by its foreign minister in protest at visits to a controversial war shrine over the weekend by Japanese cabinet ministers, including the deputy prime minister.

Visits to the Yasukuni shrine – which honours 14 class-A war criminals among 2.5 million other Japanese war dead – have traditionally angered China and South Korea, which view the site as a symbol of Japanese militarism.

Four ministers in the conservative administration of Shinzo Abe paid visits to the shrine, including his finance minister, Taro Aso.

The separate visits, to mark the beginning of the shrine's annual spring festival, come amid tensions with China over a longstanding territorial dispute in the East China sea.

Beijing did not immediately respond but South Korea said on Monday that its foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, would not be making a two-day visit to Tokyo due to begin this Friday.

"Amid this kind of atmosphere our stance is that it will be difficult to hold a productive discussion and Yun decided not to visit to Japan this time," an unnamed South Korean official told the Yonhap news agency.

Abe did not visit the shrine but sent a decorative branch of a cypress tree as a ritual offering, with his name and title written beneath, according to media reports.

China is unlikely to overlook the visit while the two rivals continue to stake rival claims to the Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyu in China.

For many in China and South Korea, visits to Yasukuni in central Tokyo are proof that Japan's modern leaders have yet to atone for their country's military misadventures on the Asian mainland in the first half of the 20th century.

Despite his nationalist leanings Abe did not visit during his previous year-long premiership from 2006 to avoid inflaming opinion in Beijing and Seoul.

He later said he regretted the decision and with his popularity ratings high at home speculation is mounting that he may be less willing to consider sensibilities in China and South Korea, particularly if his party wins key upper house elections in July, giving it control of both Diet chambers.

Aso, who also serves as deputy prime minister, has a reputation for angering Japan's neighbours; in 2003, he praised the country's 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula and has refused to apologise for his family firm's past use of Korean forced labourers and allied prisoners of war.

Aso, a former prime minister, wants class-A war criminals "delisted" from Yasukuni, thereby removing the biggest obstacle to members of the imperial family resuming their annual visits.

On Sunday, he bowed in the Shinto shrine's worship hall and left without speaking to reporters.

The other visitors included Keiji Furuya, a state minister in charge of resolving the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea during the cold war. "It is natural for a lawmaker to offer heartfelt condolences for spirits of the war dead who sacrificed their lives for the nation," he said.

Abe visited the shrine in 2012 while leader of the then main opposition Liberal Democratic party, drawing criticism from China.

In late March, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the objections over Yasukuni centred on a desire for Japan to "face up to and reflect on its history of aggression and respect the feelings of people from the victimised countries, including China". -

Sources:

Right candidates for the picking in Malaysian election fights

Fine, young candidates for the picking -They may be greenhorns in this general election but two winsome contenders have caught our aunty’s interest with their winning ways.

BY now, we know it’s a very crowded field of GE13 candidates. But in the end, what really matters to me is who is vying for my vote in my kawasan.

So I checked the list and from the lot, two first-timers, both women, piqued my interest.

First off is Chew Hoong Ling, who is pitted against Tony Pua, the incumbent in the Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary seat.

Chew shot to fame when she donated part of her liver to a stranger, a 13-year-old girl suffering from liver cancer, four years ago.

Chew’s amazingly selfless act earned her much admiration. That much I knew about her but little else.

So when her candidacy in my constituency was announced, I decided to find out more.

I couldn’t quite remember what she looked like so I checked out her pictures online.

At 33, she is young and quite tele­genic – important since the world is full of phone cameras.

According to news reports, Chew was born in Kuala Lumpur and she holds a BSc (Hons) degree in information systems from a UK university.

From her blog, I further learned she is a professional emcee and social entrepreneur.

She also describes herself as a property investor, author, radio deejay and former RTM1 presenter.

So she has the gift of the gab, a talent an effective politician should have. Not only that, she is fluent in English, Malay and Mandarin.

But what will she talk about? More importantly, will she talk sense?

Again, I am encouraged by her range of interests that seems rooted in genuine passion. Her support for organ donation, for example, started when she was a teenager.

She is also interested in single mothers because she met such people while helping out at her mother’s reflexology centre.

She wants to promote skills training for school leavers because she saw how her cousins struggled to find work after they dropped out.

She also appears to be a good neighbour and serves as the secretary of the Section 21, Petaling Jaya Rukun Tetangga.

If these are her causes, I will therefore expect her to speak knowledgeably on them. I hope she will focus on what she believes are important for us in her constituency and for the rest of the country. I want to see if she can convince me she will fight for those beliefs in Parliament.

What intrigues me is Chew is a BN candidate but she also took part in Bersih 3.0 because she says she believes in free and fair elections.

Do I detect a streak of independence in this feisty young woman? That would be something I appre­ciate in my MP.

Next is Yeo Bee Yin, the DAP candidate for the Kampung Tunku state assembly seat. She’s 30 and from Segamat, Johor.

This young lady has impressive academic credentials. As she tells it in her blog, after her secondary school education (SMJK Seg Hwa), she studied Chemical Engineering in Universiti Teknologi Petronas under a Petronas scholarship.

She topped her class, graduating with first class honours in 2006.

Yeo got a job with an international oil and gas company which sent her to work as a field engineer in Turkmenistan.

She made such good money that she was able to pay off her Petronas 10-year bond in just a few months.

But it was a six-month internship in Germany when she was still an undergraduate that started her political awakening.

“Before coming to Germany, as a top student, I thought I knew a lot. After I came here, I realised how little I knew about the world. I began to question why in Malaysia … we (have not) been taught to think critically and objectively,” she writes.

But, caught up with her high-paying job, she says, “Life was great, I worked hard, played hard ... I became terribly self-centred”.

Then came March 8, 2008, and “when I opened The Star Online and saw the news on the political tsunami, I realised how I still loved and cared about my country.”

That was the moment she decided she wanted to contribute and not view her country as an outsider.

Still, coming home had to wait as she had won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to do her Masters in Advanced Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University – a life-long dream.

At 29, she returned home to take up politics, much to her mother’s dismay. And what does she want to achieve?

“I hope that … Malaysia can be a land of opportunities and equality for our children … a land where, no matter how big and what your dreams are, they can be fulfilled here.”

She also says she is passionate about issues related to the environment and sustainability, young people, women and family.

So now I have before me two fine young women from opposing sides who are after my vote.

I like that. I like the fact that there are strong, intelligent, highly educated and motivated young people who are entering politics because they are passionate about their country. I like it because with such candidates, it means we voters have real choices to make this GE13.

So Aunty, So What? By JUNE H.L.WONG

It’s ceramah time! The writer plans to attend as many as possible with her first-time voter daughters and hopes the weather will cooperate. Feedback welcome: email junewong@thestar.com.my

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