Malaysian Society & Politics- Columns & Blogs

Betrayal, disbelief, despair, frustration and hopelessness. You can just imagine the reverberations across the country’s Malaysia Baru supporters at Dr. Mahathir’s latest machinations in the name of a unity government. But self-serving is the phrase that best describes what is happening right now. Despite every new example of politicians around the world that start out as genuine servants of the people and wind up subsuming their nations interest to their own, the people they rule over always seem surprised when they show their true colours. Dr. Mahathir though, by his actions of the past few days has added new dimensions to what it means to be self-serving. From being what was called a benevolent autocrat, he has now decided to drop the benevolent. Since nobody is better than him at running Malaysia, no one else will, at least till he is alive. In a way it is understandable that a 93-year-old that does not want to cede power, and that too to a person he can barely tolerate, wou...

In 1977, for the first time in the history of independent India, the Congress party lost national elections called in the wake of the end of the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975. The anger against the suppression of freedoms and the excesses of the authorities under the Congress brought a ragtag of opposition parties into power whose only real claim to fame was that they were not the Congress. It took only 3 years for the alliance to fall apart and the Congress to return to power with a thumping majority. Without belabouring the point too much, is Malaysia headed the same way? The only real reason for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to win the 2018 election was the Asal Bukan UMNO (ABU) factor. As long as they were strongly against corruption and committed to economic reform, they were seen to be better than the shocking state of Barisan Nasional (BN) then, and duly won. The problems began immediately. BN supporters who had voted PH purely as a protest against corruption did not w...

--> Dr. Mahathir was never going to deport Zakir Naik. As explained here over a year ago, there is this sense in all the Malay parties that he is so loved by the Malay voter that taking any action against him would lead to an immediate decline in their political fortunes. After a year and a half of so called “Tun-phoria”, it is suddenly dawning on most Pakatan Harapan voters that Dr. M has, after all, not changed his spots. This romantic notion that most PH voters had that the famous electoral victory last year would usher in an era of clean governance based on merit, needs and a sense of social justice has not only not come true, it is increasingly difficult to see the difference between this administration and the past one. If Najib Razak’s time in power could be erased like a bad dream, the electorate could be forgiven for thinking that this was the late 90’s again. Ketuanan Melayu, another national car project, MAS in the red, a rudderless education syst...

The idea of India as seen from the lens of one living overseas is a complicated one, as it is for those resident there. But there are certain things that have stood out beyond the extremities of atrocities and great achievements. Compared to pretty much any nation on earth, India has managed a relatively successful attempt at democracy, of tolerance, of honouring its commitments and most importantly perhaps, staying steadfast in support of fundamental human freedoms. However messily observed, one could compare India's press, its constitution and the acceptance, however unwilling, of its arms of government to abide by and enforce its own laws with any other country and not be embarrassed. Every time communal politics led to violence, there was also always a competing narrative of fairness, equality and freedom to reassure us that however vicious the reality, we were all committed to live in a society within the spirit of our constitution and the rule of law. Even if justice was alm...

--> It's quieter nowadays. Rows of boys and girls on their desks and little cubicles working and talking in low voices. A sullen air of seriousness and monotony hangs heavy over creative advertising agencies in the digital age. Finally, the brash, sophomoric and edgy partners of their staid, plodding clients have been cut down to size, shown the error of their ways and brought to heel. They now know that in a world where the impact of creativity is measurable, there is not a lot of need for creativity at all. A perfect storm of the Facebook carousel, click bait, shares and likes, conversion funnels, AB testing and real time bidding in programmatic have conspired to create a dream environment for every risk averse marketer and quantitative researcher, while leaving the advertising creative ecosystem in tears. The ability to measure some of the impact of communication is actually a very important step forward for creative, inasmuch as it should put pres...