Election Campaign in Pandemic Era

Malaysia is having an election for one of her state in Johor on 12 March 2022. The election campaigning tactics have evolved due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused many changes to ways of life in what is loosely known as new normal. Each political party is resorting to new normal ways to reach voters in the face of the constraints as a result of social distancing and big crowd gathering restrictions. 

You can see the below video to see how video of Tik Tok style aspect ratio has been distributed via WhatsApp chat platform to send the political messages to potential voters.

Innovation or Adaptation out of necessity is not new but the concept can be adopted into the new environment in this fast changing world. Time will tell if this method of communicating ideas will work effectively.

Marriage of Convenience: Muafakat Nasional

UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) and PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) which were both championing Malay rights and Islamic rights respectively formed a Muafakat Nasional (MN) after both lost in the 2008 general election in Malaysia. Both parties were deepening their propaganda by working together to attract Malay voters in Malaysia. All ethnic Malays are Muslims in Malaysia.

UMNO had been governing Malaysia for more than 60 years but the Malay population, except for those elitists linked to UMNO, is largely quite poor. PAS governed Kelantan for a few decades but the state remains one of the poorest state in Malaysia. When both of them joined force to revitalize their political influence, their new rhetoric garnered some support among the Malays believing that MN was finally and truly going to fight for their race and religion. On paper, their political propaganda made some sense but but it is merely propaganda and nothing else.

With the ongoing political maneuvers, UMNO had gained upper hands by out-playing PAS and PAS's the other partner, Bersatu which is also a splinter group from UMNO, in recent months. UMNO and PAS are now in collision course again in Johor state election after UMNO's landslide victory in Melaka state election without working with PAS. At the same time, UMNO, PAS and Bersatu are still able to work together to hang on to the majority to form national government of Malaysia. 

You can see the contradictions among three of them. Muafakat Nasional or not, UMNO and PAS are just political marriage of convenience to gain power to rule the country or any state therein. The morale of the story is that their political narratives are just not to be believed at all.

They failed to uplift the wellbeing of Malays who are also Muslims for the last 60 years. One cannot trust any of them to do a better job for the country or any state in the next 1, 5, or 60 years.

Michelle Yeoh and Vincent Tan on Flood

Credit to New Straits Times, Malaysia

Several cities and towns in Malaysia were flooded on the eve of Christmas 2021. This has proven to be the worst flooding in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor for a few decades. Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian born Hollywood actress, and Vincent Tan, top 10 richest man in Malaysia joined armed forces to clean up one of the hardest hit township, called Sri Muda.

As recounted by the victims in Sri Muda, Michelle Yeoh and Vincent Tan both came in and left in helicopters. Nonetheless, you will be surprised that both of them got their hands dirty while trying to help the victims in cleaning up on Christmas Day. On that day, water level at most of the flooded area had not subsided yet. Many victims and households were still sitting at their rooftops waiting for rescue.

You can see how both of them have contributed to the cleaning up as compiled by the Star news portal. Michelle Yeoh's father,  the late Yeoh Kian-Teik, was a politician from Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). The Star is controlled by the same political party, MCA.

Malaysians praise their efforts. Some have called for alternative ways for them to contribute to ease the flooding situations rather than doing the physically strenuous hard work of moving spoilt furniture and cleaning:

1. Michelle (aged 59) and Vincent (aged 69) are both seniors by age. They should really not get themselves involved in potentially harmful physical hard work for their age that may get themselves injured even in the interest of helping others.
2. They joined the 502 Territorial Army under the 4th Malaysian Infantry Division (4 Div) soldiers in their cleaning work. They should really let the young and strong soldiers attend to physically demanding activities. These young and trained soldiers would surely do a better job than the 2 respected elders.
3. Michelle is a multi-millionaire who is famous in Malaysia. Perhaps, it would be better that she donate money, clothes, food, blankets, etc to the victims. Vincent is a multi-billionaire in Malaysia. He would have been able to donate tens of million to relief efforts providing swift help to the victims.
4. Michelle has a strong fan base in Malaysia including social media e.g. facebook, instagram, twitter. If she called upon her fans to help out, it is certain that hundreds if not thousands of fans from all over the country, especially the young ones, would have come out to help the victims. One must understand that Sri Muda is one of the worse-hit by flood but by no means the only one affected. Klang, Bentong, Mentakab, Temerloh, Raub, Maran, Hulu Langat, Segamat, Mersing, Kota Tinggi, etc were all  and some are still badly affected by the flood. The widely spread-out of locations of fan can provide an immediate relief by volunteers at many different locations at one time, without just focusing on Sri Muda.
5. Vincent owns many listed companies in Malaysia including Sports Toto, Berjaya Land, Starbucks, 7 Eleven, etc which have a combined staff force of 40,000 employees. If Vincent mobilized some of these employees who are scattered throughout the country, the relief efforts would have gotten a much needed impetus.
6. With helicopters at their disposal, one wonder if those helicopters would be at better use if they were channeled to fly the victims out of inaccessible flooded areas in Sri Muda. As the prime minister of Malaysia explained it, many areas remained inaccessible at the time because the road signs and names were submerged in water. Governmental rescue workers were perhaps confused, but bird's eye view of helicopters were immensely valuable at that time.
7. Vincent owns many boats and yachts. Whichever suitable transportations could have  commissioned by Vincent to all the flooded areas to help rescue work. With Vincent's generosity in providing boats, there can be many more 'Abang Viva' or Azwan Omar.
8. Michelle and Vincent are pleaded to spare more days in the relief work just like Abang Viva and not just spend one morning of presence. They can certainly inspire many more to come out to help out. Victims in Pahang, Johor and Negri Sembilan still need help as of today. 

Many of us thank Michelle and Vincent. Some of us would like them to contribute better, and yet without hurting themselves physically, by having larger impact in the real hard work of rescuing victims and the cleaning aftermath...