Rich Snail » Malaysia

French Elections 2.0

Jacques — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:02:07 +0000

Round two of the French Election was last Sunday. Once again, I went to vote at the French Embassy and was happily surprised by the well-organized polling station. It took me less than 45mn door to door.

As most of you know by now, Francois HOLLANDE won by less of a margin than anticipated. 51.63% of my compatriots voted for our new president. Like for the first round Le Petit Journal KL did not take long to publish the results for Malaysia.

First, we can note that nearly 100 more French living in Malaysia went to vote last Sunday. Secondly, French living in Malaysia voted in strong numbers for Nicolas SARKOZY once again. 65% of my fellow French expatriates voted for the incumbent. Not really a surprise as many expats lean towards the right and pay a close attention to economic programs.

Personally, I voted for our new President. It may come as a surprise for those who know me as it was the first time in my life that I cast a vote for the French left. I did not so much vote for Mr. HOLLANDE as against Mr. SARKOZY. As much as I preferred Mr. SARKOZY’s economic program, I could not vote a second time for someone who stigmatized communities and immigrants, regularly leaned very close to the Front National, and played weathercock with his personal values for five years.

Print media in Malaysia

Jacques — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:00:42 +0000

Just back from a week in the Perhentian – bliss – I caught up with my RSS and news reading this morning. The list was quite long. Too many interesting stories about the recent news (Bersih 3.0, French elections, Greek elections, stock markets analysis…) to share them all here, but two piece of news caught my attention. Both relates to print media in Malaysia.

The first one showcases the extent to which the some reporters do not know the meaning of the word deontology: Najib’s Malaysia still stuck in the murk . Shameless. The second one is an analysis of the way the Bersih manifestation were reported in print last week: The print media’s failures in Bersih 3.0. A classic case of spin tactics.

Malaysian elites and censorship

Jacques — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:00:14 +0000

Censorship is a growing issue in Malaysia.
Especially with the General Election around the corner.

Malaysia has one of the world’s strictest censorship policy, and while cutting movies and bipping songs are mostly a disturbance, the censorship on the press is a lot more problematic. In 2010, Malaysia was ranked 141st in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index. And this ranking will certainly be lower next year as censors sharpened their scissors in recent months. For example, Marina Mahatir, a popular The Star columnist, got two of her recent piece of writing go unpublished and another one tampered with.

Why were her articles censored ? They were reporting on some unflattering statistics and rankings for the Malaysian state of democracy. The article I liked most (which you can read here under) reported that Malaysia rank last in the PDI index. This index measures the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society’s level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders.

In other words, Malaysian rank last when it comes to opportunities rise in society. They seldom question the decisions made by those in power and accept their status as lower-rank. Through this ranking, the myth of Malaysia being an egalitarian and democratic is shattered to the chore. Hence the censorship.

Some time last year a friend gave me a very interesting book, Cultures and Organisations: Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival by Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov. Professor Geert Hofstede is a Dutch sociologist who studies the ways in which companies can incorporate intercultural factors in the countries they work in so that they may function better.

One of the five intercultural dimensions that Hofstede developed in this research is the Power Distance Index that looks at how much a culture does or does not value hierarchical relationships and respect for authority. The PDI measures the distribution of power and wealth between people in a nation, business and culture, and seeks to demonstrate the extent to which subordinates or ordinary citizens submit to authority. The index figure is lower in countries or organisations in which authority figures work closely with people, and higher in countries or organisations with a more authoritarian hierarchy.

Examples of countries with high PDIs are the Arab countries, Russia, India and China while those with low scores include Japan, Australia and Canada.

How does a high PDI culture manifest itself? In these countries or organisations, we would normally observe that those in authority openly demonstrate their rank and their subordinates are not given important work and expect clear guidance from above. If anything should go wrong however, those subordinates are expected to take the blame. The relationship between the boss and his subordinates are rarely close or personal.

When it comes to politics, high PDI countries are ‘prone to totalitarianism’ and class divisions within society ‘are accepted’.

On the other hand, in low PDI countries, superiors treat subordinates with respect and do not pull rank. Hence you find the phenomenon in some countries where bosses and subordinates call each other by their first names. In these countries, subordinates are also entrusted with important assignments. If something goes wrong, the blame is either shared or accepted by the boss as it is his responsibility to manage. This is why we often find company bosses in Japan or Korea resigning or even committing suicide if there is some scandal in the company. Managers also often socialize with their subordinates.

In terms of politics, low PDI countries tend to be liberal democracies and their societies tend to lean towards egalitarianism. Hence you find Dutch royalty for instance cycling around town just like everyone else.

The PDI’s measurement of inequality is defined from below, that is, it is about how the lower ranks of a society or organization accepts and expects the unequal distribution of power. This suggests that both the followers and the leaders accept a society’s level of inequality.

As an example, Germany has a 35 on the PDI scale. This means that compared to Arab countries, which rank around 80, and Austria which has a rank of 11, Germany is somewhere in the middle. German society does not have a large gap between the rich and poor but has a strong belief in equality for every citizen. This means that every German has an opportunity to rise in society.

On the other hand, the US has a PDI of 40. Although still in the middle of the scale, there is a more unequal distribution of wealth compared to German society, a gap that seems to be widening as the years go by. This explains the recent explosion of the Occupy Movement, because the distribution of wealth between the top 1% and other 99% seems to have become extremely unequal.

When you look at the PDI measurements of many countries, a pattern seems to emerge. Those at the top end seem to be less developed than others. They also seem to be undemocratic or at the very least very imperfect democracies. They are the type of countries where you are likely to see leaders who are kept both physically and psychologically distant from the masses. Apart from orchestrated events, you are unlikely to see political leaders in anything except limousines and VIP rooms.

So after reading all of this, and sensing something familiar, where do you think Malaysia stands in the PDI rankings? Do we have our leaders ‘openly demonstrating their rank’? Despite constant exhortations to ‘go down to the grassroots’, our leaders rarely are addressed in anything but the most respectful titles and terms. Some of their subordinates may take on important jobs but they will shoulder 100% of the blame should anything go wrong, even when it’s not really their fault. Our people do tend to wait for instructions from above and feel somewhat lost if we don’t get clear ones. Our mindset remains largely feudal.

Thus it should come as no surprise that Malaysia, with an index of 104, tops the PDI rankings.

Marina Mahatir for The Star – Power and the media…cut again…

French Elections

Jacques — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 05:00:45 +0000

Last Sunday, I went to vote at the French Embassy for the first round of the 2012 French presidential election. While the results in France saw Francois Holland taking the lead with 28.6%, Nicolas Sarkozy coming in second with 27.2% and Marine Le Pen finishing third with 17.9%, I was looking forward to reading about the voting patterns of French Expats living in Malaysia. Le Petit Journal KL just published the results this morning. The following graph is worth a thousand words.

What to make of this first round ? French expatriates living in Malaysia have voted in strong numbers for Mr. Sarkozy. The trend is stronger here than elsewhere as 38% of French expat worldwide voted for him, while Mr. Holland’s numbers in Malaysia were in line with the ones worldwide: 28%. On a more personal note, I was happy to discover that Mr. Bayrou, who got my vote, came in third with 23% of the votes. Both Le Pen and Melanchon, who are equally destructive and intolerant in my books, were only credited with 5% of the votes. It was also a good surprise to see the total participation in Malaysia emarging at 50%, well above the average for French expats worldwide which is reported at 40%.

Round two of the elections is in two weeks’ time.

SonaOne Assaulted by Johorean Royalty

Jacques — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:00:01 +0000

Get well soon Mikael !
And may Tengku Mishal finally appear in court to answer for his actions.

(Malaysian Digest) – A Johor royalty by the name of Tengku Mishal Ibrahim has been implicated in connection to last week’s assault on a hip hop entertainer outside a night club.

The incident which happened last Thursday was tweeted by many sympathizers of victim Mikhael Adam Mohd Rafae (aka SonaOne), 24, with some claiming it was not the first time Tengku Mishal had been involved in violent acts.

Among those who took up to Twitter to implicate Tengku Mishal to the incident were siblings and Fly FM radio deejays Hafiz Hatim and Hani Farhana Hatim or better known as Hunny Madu.

“If u are wondering who that is on my profile pic. It’s Mika @ItsSonaOne. Beaten up at roots at 4am by Tunku Mishal Sharin Tunku Ibrahim,” Hafiz tweeted on Saturday.

“Anyone has Tunku Mishal Sharin bin Tunku Ibrahim’s phone number/address? He has crossed the line way too many times. Stop him bfo he kills.

“Get ur newspapers now. Get Tunku Mishal Shahrin away from our society. He who thinks he’s king of the world shud live in a cage,” he added.

Meanwhile, his sister Hani tweeted: “A year ago, same dude assisted to bash Abe (Hafiz) up. Both happened at The Rootz (the nightclub). Thank you T.Mishal.”

“This is not the first time. @cowbear (Hafiz) was also the victim last year by his kuncu-kuncu (henchmen),” she added.

According to sources, Hafiz had also been a victim of Tengku Mishal’s alleged violent conduct last year.

Hafiz on Saturday had also enquired through Tengku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Ibrahim on Tengku Mishal.

“kenalan Tuanku iaitu Tunku Mishal telah melakukan perkara yg melampaui batas. No one is above the law except GOD. Thnx.” Hafiz tweeted Tunku Ismail.

To which Tunku Ismail replied: “I know him. He is banned from Johor long time ago. I don’t like the guy.”

“terima Kasih Tuanku. Last I heard he fled the country already. Ur time is very much appreciated. Wish us well,” said Hafiz in his reply to the Johor prince.

Hafiz also expressed concern over the likelihood that Tengku Mishal will get away with his latest alleged assault.

“his (Mikhael Adam) spirits are still up n hopefully everyone will help out when needed to coz wat the man in blue told us wasn’t assuring.

“We are waiting the authorities to do SOMETHING.. But wait we shall while Mishal parties. Yday he was spotted at Lust, actions taken: Nada,” said Hafiz

He also said that “we gonna go loud” on the matter.

Hafiz could not be reached for comment when called on his cellphone by Malaysian Digest earlier.

Mikhael Adam sustained injuries on the head and face after he was assaulted in front of Lot 10 shopping complex in Jalan Bukit Bintang on early Friday morning.

In the 4am incident, Mikael Adam had got into a car with two women friends after work when he was approached by the suspect who pulled him out of the vehicle.

“I was punched repeatedly until I fell. I could only cover my head and face with my arms and hands to avoid from being more severely injured. Then, I lost consciousness after I was stomped on the head,” he told reporters while being treated at a private hospital here.

Mikael Adam said he was taken to the hospital by a friend who was informed of the incident by his two women friends when he was unconscious.

He said his friend had lodged a police report on the incident at the Tun Razak Police Station not long after the assault.

Mikael Adam is a graffiti artist, music producer, songwriter, rapper and live performer who is under the Kartel Records label, headed by local hip-hop artiste Joe Flizzow.

Meanwhile, Dang Wangi police chief ACP Mohamed Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman confirmed receiving a report on the incident, saying an investigation was being carried out.

Johor Royalty linked to assault on rapper