masterwordsmith-unplugged

In my earlier post, I was lamenting how the dire state of education in our land has caused us to lose international competitiveness in our effort to develop the nation and ourselves. Not only that, many have lost the ability to think because it is too tiring, too tedious, inconvenient and confusing hence there is the tendency to subject ourselves to balderdash and moronic claims, promises, accusations etc. We have been deprived of capable leadership that can steer the country in the right direction.

Just the other day, my husband was driving us to the vet for my dog's vaccination. Along the way, he received a SMS and requested me to read it to him. I opened the message and to my horror, I read:

hello! i am miss thee....

I thought to myself - oh wow! He has an admirer who is trying to use Shakespearean English???? What the...????

Maintaining my composure, I read on....and it was actually:

hello! i am miss thee. mr teh asked me 2 call u @ ****** which he etc etc

So the message was actually:

Hello! I am Miss Thee. Mr. Teh asked me to call you about etc etc etc!!!

Considering the current state of education, don't be surprised if one day, not too far in the future, employers receive such CVs from job applicants.

Curriculum Vitae

Name:                                   Ah Boy
Age:                                      Still young
Sex:                                      Never. Still under age
Religion:                               I only have experience praying for my cat who dead 2 years before
Race:                                    I love to race, how you know?
Nationality:                            I don't like National, I prefer Sanyo
IC Number:                           6735
Telephone number:              House got no telephone
Hand phone number:            3310
Address:                               Penang Jelutong
City :                                      Nor Haliza?
Postcode:                             I never post anything
State:                                    What state you want? In my family, I am 2nd
Country:                                I want to travel to go oversea anywhere outside Malaysia
Marriage status:                   Secret
Email Address:                     Hotmail
Education Background:        My teacher said not bad
Working experience:             Last time I got sell pirated VCD
Father's name:                      Daddy
Father's IC:                           You ask him
Mother's name:                     Mummy
Mother's IC:                          You ask her
Current Salary:                     Depends on my daddy mood
Expected Salary:                  As much as you can pay
When can start work:           Depends on my mood
Highest qualification:           Ya, very high
Grade:                                 Cannot Tell
College/University:              College All Lousy wan
Signature:                            Can I use chop?

To further illustrate, take a look at this paragraph written by an Upper Six student from a premier school in Penang whom I was helping for eight times.. I told her guardian that I cannot help her any more because she does not want to help herself. Mind you, this was her third attempt to answer a very simple question where she was required to give her opinion of materialism.

Note: She misspelled materialism with a double 'l' and apart from other mechanical errors such as tenses and sentence structure, wrote import instead of important and Ipohe instead of iPhone and only corrected it when I pointed it out to her after asking her to check this page for three consecutive times because she just could not see the errors. There are more errors than what I marked in red.

Quo vadis, Malaysia?

May God help and bless our nation and deliver us from egomaniacal leaders, mercenary characters and self-serving miscreants disguised as Samaritans.

May our education system be revamped to empower our nation to soar ahead again.

I am really fed up of seeing nonsensical work from many students across the board. Seriously, I am going to devote a few hours each week to compile the Little Book of English Horrors to document all the evidence I have collected through the years, especially in the 21st century.

Please leave a comment to share your views.

This is Part 2 of my post on Education and Selection Process Determine Quality of Leadership.

Part 3 will be posted at 3.30p.m. today. Please swing by later. Thanks!

Due to my past experiences with all kinds of weirdos, I am always very wary of:

It has been such a horrible day today and it is only now that I finally managed to get online. My area had a power outage from 10.40a.m. till 4.10p.m. so you can imagine the withdrawal symptoms I had today.

Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my handphone and could not use my 3G to surf the net as I had to conserve my battery for emergencies. Thankfully, I managed to put up one post this afternoon at 1p.m.

What was most infuriating was the inefficiency and poor communication of the Tenaga Nasional Staff.

Once the power was cut, I called TNB @ 15454 FOUR TIMES and was given a different story each time.

The first call I made was at 10.45 a.m. to Ms L from the TNB in Pahang who told me that it was highly probable that mine was the ONLY house that had a power outage since there was no one else who called. I told her that I called her within seconds when the power went off. Then I asked her to let me know the progress report. I gave her my MOBILE number and told her I would leave to buy lunch since there was no way I could cook. Most intelligently, she said that she would not be able to call me when the electricians arrived to check the wiring in my house. I reminded her that:

a) I had given her my MOBILE number and she could call me when the electricians arrived. Besides, I was going to the shops near my home so I would be able to reach home in a jiffy.

b) I reminded her that mine was NOT the only home that had a power cut.

Ten minutes later, I called again. This time I spoke to a Cik S. N. A. also from Pahang and she ticked me off for calling back so quickly. Fine. Then I asked her to call me back (as I had done with other customer care officers in the past). Her response : Sorry - if you want to know, please call back after ONE HOUR. Fine.

I called a third time and spoke to Cik A who said that the technicians were attending to the problem and power would be restored within three hours.

An hour later, a TNB pick-up truck drove up to my house and the technicians said they had to check my meter as mine was the only house that did not have electricity.

I told them that mine was NOT the only house and by then, the neighbour opposite my home came out and she confirmed that she too did not have any power supply.

The technician then called a number and then told us that the power supply would be restored by 7p.m. the latest as they were doing maintenance works. Then he asked why I did not refer to the notice given and why I said my home did not have electricity etc etc.

By then, I was boiling mad not at the technician but at the first customer care officer I had spoken to for passing on the wrong information to the technicians who rushed from one end of town to my place.

Later, I had to rush off to buy lunch, fetch my son home from school and upon my return, I called TNB for the FOURTH time and spoke to a gentleman this time.

Immediately I asked to speak to the officer-in-charge and asked:

a) Why were the customer care officers so clueless when receiving reports?
b) Why didn't they have to latest information at the click of the mouse to update irate consumers?
c) Why weren't any circulars distributed in the neighbourhood?
d) Who was responsible for the horrible mess in the communication breakdown because two technicians were deployed to my home for the wrong reason?
e) Why was I told one reason after another for the power cut when another neighbour who called up was given the correct answer?
f) It was only two days ago that the meter reader did his rounds in the neighbourhood. Surely he could have passed the notice to the residents in my housing area.

Etc etc etc

She apologised and said she would get back to me. It is now almost 11p.m. and I have had no word from her. For sure, I will call her tomorrow morning and follow up on what happened and why my neighbours and I did not receive word/notice about the power cut.

Two years ago, my area had power outages NINE times on the second or was it the third day of the Chinese New Year. I wrote a terse complaint letter to TNB and even made an appointment to see the head of department at Anson Road. The distinguished gentleman apologised elegantly and answered my query for what they intended to do. To my surprise, the gentleman wrote a very long letter of apology and mailed it to my home. A very diplomatic and professional move indeed - a sharp contrast to the horrible scenario I experienced today.

As a result of this hiccup, I almost threw my smartphone away because I was so frustrated as I could not surf the net smoothly. The screen was hung so many times and I had to reset my data. By late afternoon, I indulged in some shopping therapy and bought a new handphone that truly gave me many moments of laughter.

One of the problems of my previous android phone was the small keyboard and screen. For at least 60% of the time, whatever I typed be it emails or smses would be wrong.

The android that I bought this evening has a very big screen for the blind to see and the best part is that everything is voice activated (or so I thought as I did my homework long ago and had wanted this particular phone for ages) which meant I could email, sms, surf etc just by my vocal directions, or so I thought. So I asked the salesgirl from whom my family had bought four phones and she said gingerly that it depended on how accurate was my accent.

Hmmm I thought....how wrong could I be in my accent?

Anyway, the whole evening was spent at the shop downloading the stuff I needed, learning how to use this and that and downloading songs, ringtones etc.

On the way home, I used the voice facility happily. With my previous phone, I only had one problem - When I asked for Jemputree ( a cafe), Google directed me to Calgary....:-( and auto-dialled one Calgary number.

This evening, I asked for my own blog and said: masterwordsmith dot blogspot dot com.

And what came out was:

Did you mean :

• master blood the smith?
• mom still would smith?
• mom still would miss
• mom still would a minute
• master i will smith
• mascara will smith
• master it will smith
• mascara what is this
• and many more combinations, I kid you not!!!

According to The Star:

The Education Ministry is still discussing whether to allow students to take hand phones to school. 

Deputy Education minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said the ministry has not finalised the matter and was still in the evaluation stage.

“Many things need to be scrutinized before any decision is taken, including the views of the students. To date, many views have been received. In fact, I myself received a letter from a 10-year-old student who disagreed with the proposal.

“It is surprising when a standard four pupil himself offers such a view and state why he disagrees. So, there will be an in-depth study before a decision is made,” he told reporters at a cheque handing ceremony to Negeri Sembilan government-aided schools at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Chung Hua, Tuesday.

What is there to discuss? I cannot believe what I read.

1. Still discussing?
2. Matter not finalised?
3. Evaluation stage?

For heaven's sake, don't they have better things to do such as:

• raising the standard of English in the education system 
• making sure our students can compete internationally 
• improving facilities in schools
• improving the scope of the syllabus of core subjects
• improving the marking scheme of public examinations etc etc

Even if mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives, it does not mean that schools should bend backwards and follow trends at the expense of the quality of education being imparted to students.

Let's consider the cons of allowing students to carry hand phones to school.

Such a move could enable/allow students to:

• cheat by sending/receiving text messages with the answers
• create havoc via false or seemingly harmless text messages such as "There will be early dismissal today due to an emergency staff meeting" or even bomb threats
• make or receive phone calls during class for any reason but family emergencies
• be distracted and have difficulty in following the lessons
• violate people's privacy by taking pictures of their teachers/other students without permission and then posting them online after these have been photo-shopped.
• influence others to view unsavoury/pornographic websites, use websites to do their homework if their phone is a smart phone and if they have their own data package to surf. They can also partake in unhealthy habits such as betting/gambling or gaming etc
• be at risk to threats/attacks from gangsters/undesirable elements e.g. if they are threatened or extorted because they were using fancy hand phones as the high end mobile phone models would be an indication of the students' financial background
• have disagreements/fights over hand phones out of jealousy or misunderstanding
• have difficulty in being disciplined as the hand phones rightly belong to students
• be at risk for more thefts could occur
• burden families as children are likely to keep up with the latest models of hand phone and/or even rake up a hefty phone/data bill.
• be easily distracted in class, learn less, have difficulty in paying attention to teachers and disrupt the concentration of those who want to learn
• have less respect for others around them
• be deprived of social graces and communication opportunities to develop themselves to become well-adjusted individuals if they persist in playing with their hand phones instead of paying attention in class, responding to their friends in social situations 
• organize criminal behaviour
•  be exposed to the disorders and dysfunctions caused by the cell phones including medical problems from over-usage of mobile phones such as loss of hearing, brain problems and many more related problems.

Of course it is only natural that parents who could be worried for the safety and security of their children e.g. in an emergency but there is always the alternative - public phones or the school office phones. Surely the school administration would allow students to use the school's telephone in the event that public phones in the school are out of order. Some teachers could also allow students to use their mobile phones during emergency situations.

If the public phones are out of order and the calls are urgent, no administrator or teacher will prevent a child from using the school’s phone.

Of course there could be situations where students really need a hand phone especially if the student or a family member is very ill, needs medication or advice or has mental problems and needs to contact their loved ones as soon as possible. I am sure in such situations, there could be exceptions to the rule.

Hence, I strongly feel that the whole issue is a non-starter. Is there a necessity to consider the the views of the students? Surely as an Education Ministry, they should know what is best for students and not the other way round. If a ten year-old can object to the proposal, does it not show how ridiculous it is to take such a long time via a tedious bureaucratic process to make a simple decision to disallow the usage of mobile phones?

Another point to consider is that most schools already DISALLOW students to even BRING their hand phones to school. If the Ministry decides to allow students to do otherwise, is it not tantamount to declaring that previous school policies are wrong? I really do not see the logic of the matter at all.

Hence, all they need is to go through very simple decision making process that requires maybe an hour's meeting the most instead of going round the mulberry bush and giving all kinds of ludicrous reasoning.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS VIDEO PRODUCED BY A STUDENT on why handphones should not be allowed in schools.

Honestly, I hate driving in Penang. It is strange how my friends overseas or from other parts of Malaysia wax lyrical about Penang but it is not as rosy as some want others to think. The truth of the matter is that the traffic problem in Penang HAS NOT BEEN SOLVED by both the past and present state governments. In fact, it appears that is has worsened and may worsen further once they finish constructing the second link and the tunnel project. Some boast about linking here and there but pray tell me the rationale behind chanelling MORE traffic to the island when the road system and poor infrastructure cannot support the population growth and the increase in the number of vehicles on the road.

With the bottleneck, traffic jams, faulty traffic lights, poor road systems, the absence of a structured development plan that does not jeopardise the quality of life of Penangites coupled with the lack of genuine concern for the social and physical impact of developments, is it any wonder that road rage is common today?

Penang has had to pay a heavy price for development. The faster pace of life and materialism has not bred civic consciousness or a caring spirit that stems from a heart that cares. Of course, there are organizations that practise charity etc but I am talking about being civil not just to friends but also to strangers. I am talking about the ability to be considerate to fellow citizens, to friends and even family members. For leaders, it should be the willingness to descend from their delusional state that they are paragons of virtues come to bless us with development.  To me, the only development we need would be housing for the poor and homeless, not for foreigners who jack up the property prices by speculative practices.

An expat friend of mine who constantly lobbies with regards to environmental issues often laments about the sheer apathetic state that many seem to adopt - as long as it does not affect them personally, they will remain silent or indifferent. Worse still, there are those who speak out against those who voice their concerns and objections to development - accusing them of selfish desires to preserve their neighbourhood.

When I was in KL the week before, a friend related to  me how some from another Asian nation have become millionaires just by their speculative purchases. According to her, Mr A buys a house in Neighbourhood #1 by offering a price above market value. Thrilled they will sell. The neighbours are excited and hope their property will appreciate in value. So Mr A sends his accomplice to buy property # 2 in Neighbourhood # 1. The house owner resists and demands for an ever higher value. Then he sells and the domino effect comes into place. Subsequently, after making a few purchases, the foreigner then sells ALL the properties he bought in Neighbourhood #1, earns a hefty profit and makes a run for another neighbourhood and the whole cycle begins again. After two years, they return to their motherland as BILLIONAIRES while we have to pay through our nose for those properties.

Besides traffic jams, there is another Malaysian malaise. In many respects, I do not think the Net has blessed us with positive effects. Many remain in their comfort zones, hide behind anonymity, lambaste when they feel like it without considering the whole picture. The power of the click of the mouse seems to delude us from facing or even acknowledging reality squarely.

We can see selfishness in the way people park their cars, honk at others or even jump queue.

Today, I was the victim of two groups of road bullies. While waiting to pick my son from school, I was parked along the road and then came along this car filled with four ladies who wanted to turn into another road in the opposite direction. I thought I was being kindhearted when  I wound down my window to let them know that they were intending to turn into the EXIT road. And then all hell broke lose. The four ladies started scolding me and believe me, their faces were so distorted and contorted that the first thing that came to my mind was the witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth". Then they happily turned into the other road with their what they heck I could not care less type of expressions on the faces. As long as they get to where they want, it does not matter who they hurt.

Then of course there are the 'users'. Users are those who love to use people to advance their agenda. Once there is no  more use of them in terms of need or if one used does not conform to their value/political system, these users are retired and put into cold storage and the poor victims will be left in the cold asking, "What did I do to deserve this?" When reality hits home that such unscrupulous and unfeeling beings exist, the pain and disappointment may be too great to bear for some but a piece of cake for the more resilient ones.

Let's not forget the sheep i.e. those who follow popular opinion and go on to give their inaugural lectures in coffee shop discussions when they themselves have done nothing else apart from yakity-yakking. All for show. All in the name for the desire for attention.

Sadly, malicious characters out to further their own agenda make use of such gullible characters leading them by the nose in all kinds of spins. Those who do research to find out more may unravel the truth. Those who do otherwise become pawns in the power game. Sadly, the latter think the former are barking up the wrong tree. Worse still are those positioned to shape public opinion in a mercenary manner. This is such a sorry state of affairs because with the decline in the quality and standard of education, it is likely that the electorate in the future may be more gullible. Some say - no way because information is now readily available. They could not be further from the truth. The harsh reality is that whilst we may have access to MORE information, how much is true, believable and sincere especially with regards to political issues?

I could go on and on and if you are wondering why I am in such a mood today, it is because I have bottled it up for so long and it took two road bullies to unleash the tigress in me in my blog to rant in this manner.

I am so angry with the state of affairs -especially with road bullies, selfish people, users etc that I wrote this post in 25 minutes without planning but plain hammering of the keyboard to rant. It took me four hours to cool down before I could start writing. Otherwise, I would have posted something around noon as I usually do.

Sighs.

Anyway, do share your responses, observations and solutions. Thanks! Have a nice day!

The following post by KJ John is from Malaysiakini at this link. KJ JOHN was in public service for 29 years. The views expressed here are his personal views and not those of any institution he is involved with. I am reposting it to share it with readers who have yet to subscribe to Malaysiakini. You can do so HERE.

1. Did SPA, as a Public Services Commission, deliberate and seek a consensus on this case before he was told to retire? When was that meeting held?
2. Was the incumbent not initially appointed by the SPA? If so, what criterion and factors were considered in that appointment? Did those factors and consideration suddenly disappear now?
3. Usually there is positive vetting for the suitability of the holder for the post of the head of JPA. Was this done in this incumbent’s case? Was it not evident in quite a few Auditor-General’s Reports that the same incumbent was cited for failures as the Defence Ministry’s controlling officer?
4. I understand that he may have failed in his duties in the conduct and performance of “the salary review” which was finally aborted, but what was the due process for the terms of reference or ToR and subsequent appoint of the review committee? Was he alone in this committee? If not, are the others being equally punished for the same failure? Was the cabinet not involved in the approval of the said “new salary policy” before it was announced for execution? How could have the Pensions Division make payments to pensioners on the new scheme if the cabinet had not approved the policy and therefore payments? Why was the federal cabinet not then held equally liable for the same failures as the incumbent who only made the recommendations? Is this not the Ling Liong Sik argument in court?
5. I think the SPA must come clean and clarify why the incumbent was removed and what were his failures and also admit if they failed in making the appointment in the first place.

Did you know that seven people walked past snatch theft victim Tan Kim Chuan, 60, without lifting a finger to help her as she lay unconscious on the road with a cracked skull at the Rifle Range flats in Penang?

According to The Star, CCTV footage showed her lying on the road for about seven minutes (see sequence of events HERE).

Nine hours later, Kim Chuan, who fell and knocked her head on the road in the 6.02am incident on two days ago (Tuesday) succumbed to her injuries at the Penang Hospital.

The victim was a widow who had just moved into the Rifle Range flats two weeks ago. She was walking alone near Block J of the flats when her handbag was snatched by a motorcyclist.

At about 6.10am, three good Samaritans (including airport cargo worker B. Saravana Kumar, 37, and fellow flat resident, Khoo Ean Ooi, 57) lifted her to the side of the road and called for an ambulance.

Another Rifle Range resident who only wanted to be known as Beh, 77, who was captured on the CCTV footage walking away from the victim, said he had intended to help, but was too frail. (Click here for the report on the good Samaritans)

This incident, which echoes the Parable of the Good Samaritan is but one example of how many in modern society have forgotten how to care, to love and to help others.

A similar event happened to the mother of one of my former students, C.C.S., Regional Manager of a Foundation in another Asian city. She was walking along Leandros Lane in front of Bellisa View when two motor-cyclists came close to hear and tried to snatch her handbag. As she had her American passport with her, she struggled and hung on to her bag. Tragically, the pillion rider took off his helmet and smashed her head with it a few times. She fell to the ground and hit her head and was bleeding badly. Passers-by rushed her to the hospital where she passed away a few hours later without regaining consciousness. A tragic death, C.C.S. never got to see his mom who never got the chance to attend his graduation. :-(

What has happened to Malaysian society? Why are many lacking in compassion and in sympathy for the less fortunate or those in need? Do we have the desire to develop civic consciousness and to help? What good is it if we enjoy material success and have forgotten how to feel, to care and to help those in need? We would be worse than animals.

When there is an accident, people usually surround the victims because:

• they want to note the number plate of the vehicles involved in the accident so that they can buy those numbers at the four-digit centres
• they are touts working for tow-truck companies
• some unscruplous ones try to steal stuff from the victims...my friend's daughter who had a very bad accident lost her phone, handbag and even her designer shoes!!!!

The focus on self seems to surpass the collective good of society and this can be seen in:

• the way many (especially Penangites) park their car haphazardly in no-parking zones
• how some honk and/or weave their way through traffic just so they can reach their destination in time
• how many cut queue when trying to board the plane, especially for Air Asia flights
• how some declare their political apathy or unwillingness to vote just because they do not think their votes can make any difference
• the way some practise double standards when they persist in law-breaking behavious
• how littering is still a problem 
• how some rather do good to themselves than to others in a show of selfishness
• how many just do not care about others and are reluctant to lift a finger to help, even neighbours, friends or relatives, let alone strangers
• how many also forget the value of friendship and the way some have helped them along the way
• etc etc

The desire to reach out, touch lives, help others or even an attitude or gratitude is sorely missing in our society today.

Granted that conflicts exist which disturb all of thinking Malaysians. It is common knowledge that many inequalities exist and distribution of resources is fairly inequitable. All that is disturbing but more importantly, in our bid to progress in society, to be a winner in the rat race, the element of being human is startlingly MISSING.

Poor leadership, weak political will and the lack or even absence of towering Malaysians, exemplary behaviour or demonstrations of civic consciousness and the lack of civic consciousness and civic awakening are all missing or deficient. Even at public events, how many actually reach out to welcome others to such public meetings? I have attended so many and notice that many group in their cliques without engaging other newcomers or those who do not belong to any clique. Instead of being a self-serving community, we must really be more caring towards one another.

With little caring for our fellowmen, even with good leadership, plans may not be able to take off.

What we see is the disintegration of society where we become alienated from one another and maybe even ourselves and then dwell in the cold comfort of delusion.


Many years ago, one of my A-level students was absent for a few lessons. I asked the students about him and none new. Then I asked if any of them had his telephone number and some had. So I told them that if they had his number, they should call him. What if he was terminally ill or had died? The class went silent. One of them called him after the lesson and we were shocked to learn that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer and had had an operation to take out a section of his liver (about 10x2cm). Months later, the cancer re-surfaced and had penetrated the bones and lungs. A brave man, he advised us and his family not to be saddened by the turn of events and even gave instructions for his last rites. As requested, he was wearing his favourite MU football jersey on his final journey. We really wept at the wake service and the funeral.

It hurts to care. It is even worse to care too much. Even though I have been hurt/disappointed many times, that does not stop me from caring, loving or helping people. Those episodes have certainly taught me to be wiser in my association with people. Having said that, despite the cold and cruel world we live in,  I will always reach out to genuine ones in need and to others - with lots of discretion and wisdom.

According to Wikipedia:

"Cutting off the nose to spite the face" is an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive over-reaction to a problem: "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" is a warning against acting out of pique, or against pursuing revenge in a way that would damage oneself more than the object of one's anger.
The phrase is known to have been used in the 12th century. It may be associated with the numerous legends of pious women disfiguring themselves in order to protect their virginity. These cases include Saint Eusebia, Saint Ebba, Saint Oda of Hainault and Saint Margaret of Hungary.

The most famous[citation needed] of these cases was that of Aebbe the Younger, the Mother Superior of the monastery of Coldingham. In 867 AD, Viking pirates from Zealand and Uppsala landed in Scotland. When news of the raid reached Saint Ebba, she gathered her nuns together and urged them to disfigure themselves, so that they might be unappealing to the Vikings. In this way, they hoped to protect their chastity. She demonstrated this by cutting off her nose and upper lip, and the nuns proceeded to do the same. The Viking raiders were so disgusted that they burned the entire building to the ground.

The expression has since become a blanket term for (often unwise) self-destructive actions motivated purely by anger or desire for revenge. For example, if a man was angered by his wife, he might burn down their house to punish her; however, burning down her house would also mean burning down his, along with all their combustible personal possessions.

In the 1796 edition of Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, "He cut off his nose to be revenged of his face." is defined as "one who, to be revenged on his neighbour, has materially injured himself." The word "spite" is used in the sense of revenge and "face" is used in the sense of honor.

Of late, it seems that class, elegance and good public relations tactics are seemingly in a state of want when we look at what some bloopers made by some political leaders.

It is quite shocking that in an attempt to ward off 'attacks' from their enemies, some cut the nose to spite the face. The lack of foresight and wisdom prevented them from seeing the ramifications of their words of defence. READ THIS.



Even a leader's written response to one particular MSM as published in another site has a mechanical error in the second sentence of the third paragraph. A rush job?
The recent debate revealed even another PR disaster.

Seriously, it appears that some are reacting emotionally rather than taking the bull by the horns and calling a spade a spade. If there are accusations, either admit or deny FIRMLY rather than exacerbating the situation by indulging in personal attacks.

It appears that those who have been in the limelight the past few days need to engage the rakyat in more intelligent terms.

The following articles would better acquaint us of the steps and strategies that they should have taken instead of all the drama-rama ruckus which leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

1. How to Counter the Reporter Ambush

2. Preparing for Damage Control

3. The  Three C's of Credibility

4. The Case for a Reputation Protection Model

5. The Truth About PR Disasters

6. The 15 Biggest PR Disasters of the Decade

7. Learning from past PR Crises

8. Risk Issues and Crises Management

If those involved do not assess and contain the collateral damage, it is likely that the current Public Relations debacle may affect them negatively in the coming elections. Some examples would be the ongoing critiques of Bulletin Mutiara and how development in Penang that may not seem to be people-centric. We must not forget the bonanza articles in The Sunday Star about Penang.

People choose what they want to believe in based on their perceptions of the problems.

If issues are poorly handled such as when parties involved shoot anything from their mouths that end up shooting themselves in the foot, who is at fault? Hence, this is a major Public Relations crisis that some are facing.

Hopefully, they will come down from their ivory tower and connect with the rakyat!