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Sunday, December 7, 2014

BUT...BUT...THEY'RE 'SUPREME'! An idea for Umno's 2015 general assembly

BUT...BUT...THEY'RE 'SUPREME'! An idea for Umno's 2015 general assembly
Here’s something the next Umno general assembly could try. A kind of thought experiment. What if, a week (or two) prior to the event, all the keynotes and VIP speeches are uploaded to a public website?
What if, before the president, deputy president or whoever speaks, their speeches are already made available for everyone to download and read?
Bad idea? Probably. Promising concept? I hope.
First, this is Umno we’re talking about. They have been the, uh, “stalwart guardians” of the Malaysian galaxy since not long after TV was invented.
As the head honcho of the ruling alliance, this assembly is of undeniable significance to the entire nation. So surely it would benefit everyone if all the speeches by the top folks can be read in their unadulterated form, free from “media bias”.
If these almighty and all-important speeches can be viewed by all before the big day, there could be fewer misunderstandings, fewer knee-jerk reactions and all the top brass in PWTC can stop saying that they were “misquoted” or “misinterpreted” by the press.
A similar reasoning applies behind why all school and college assessments should be transparent to the students before the exams. If you want your test to be fair and its criteria valid, your students simply must know how they will be evaluated prior taking the exam.
Ergo for Umno? Let the whole world know the essence of what you want to say la. And during the event, simply mention the highlights. Or present a shorter version. Or show photos. Or eat more cake. Or whatever.
Second, because the speech is fully online, it can be received and examined without the frenzy and passion which normally accompanies huge crowds of a like-minded bent.
The way the Umno assembly is being run, people would applaud even if somebody called for a ban on the letter “Q”. It’s not only that nobody has the guts to jeer or question what any of the big boys are saying (at least not there and then), it’s that people are pressured to cheer regardless of what’s being said.
It’s the herd instinct which herds out rationality, the crowd mentality which crowds out common sense.
Recall the famous Asch experiment. Subjects are called in do a simple test. When they’re alone, they usually get the answer right.
But when other people (who were really actors) came in and deliberately produced the wrong answer, the test subjects tended to get the answer wrong. Like canned laughter in sitcoms, there is pressure and sway. Even if I don’t find the joke funny, I may still feel like laughing simply because “everyone else” is.
Conclusion: your opinion/action in a crowd won’t necessarily be the same when the crowd isn’t there.
Now throw in factors like power, money and ethnic sentiment and you get a few thousand people celebrating public remarks which border on racist supremacy.
Again, the Umno assembly is totally unlike a corporate annual dinner where nobody cares what the Man at the front is saying. Even less is it like a wedding banquet where Table #42 has drunk so much wine they’re not even on the same planet.
Neither is the assembly like some b.s. academic conference or workshop where 80% of the people are on Facebook 108% of the time, and only 20% of attendees comprehend more than 2% of what’s being spoken on.
The Umno general assembly is a gathering of the most powerful dudes in the country whose every word is mined (by almost 30 million people) for promise and hope, sifted for threat and fear.
For better or worse, the emperors are speaking and each syllable becomes a matter of national importance. So – and I’m here trying to tell the emperors something – if you don’t want to be wrongly accused of not wearing any clothes, you have to make an effort to ensure that everyone can see and touch your garments.
You don’t parade yourself behind closed doors, then later some journalist claims your booty was exposed.
All right – not a great analogy, but you get the point.
Finally, this is also relevant for business organisations. I’ve sat in corporate gatherings where the big shot said something akin to the moon being made of Swiss cheese.
Guess what happened? Everybody (except yours truly) applauded. Later on, I asked some of the people, “Did you hear what the Man said? He said that going North was a great decision. Didn’t you previously mention how the North is full of monsters, how many people suffered, and so on?” Yeah but never mind la. He’s the boss mah.
Leaders should make their thoughts public and subject them to anonymous voting and feedback. This is not at all to tolerate vicious personal attacks.
Rather, if these leaders are serious about being good leaders, then honest feedback – based on freely available information – should be a no-brainer. – TMI

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