When I was a student, I was told that Public Relations (PR) is a subtle act of infusing people to subscribe to ideas that can benefit a certain organization. I know, it sounds so intelligent, doesn’t it? It sounds complicated, as if the most complex, far-thinking individuals on planet earth can pull off a great PR act.

Just look at all those smartly dressed PR ladies in those PR firms- or the exceptionally suited men in them. They present themselves so sophisticatedly that an organization is just supposed to roll over and say ‘makes us famous’ and they will do the rest. PR is such an intrinsic field- or so we were told. Why, even I was considered not sophisticated enough in spite of all my novel-writings not is good enough for one of Malaysia’s leading PR institutions. I was good enough to be called for an interview, but not further.

When I went out from there, all I told to myself was- look at them, they are in a different league altogether. Maybe my short stint with Microsoft’s PR wing has proved to be insufficient to have me make the cut.

But now I’m out of it. This country’s PR borderlines on stupidity at times, and hardly half of the time you see someone pulling a PR act that is so good that it takes a smart bloke to look at the larger picture and say ‘yeh, that’s a smart piece of act’.

Why, I don’t even have to illustrate examples for that matter, look at our biggest, largest, grandest PR stunt- 1 Malaysia. A drive through Brickfields ahead of the Indian premier Manmohan Singh’s visit later tomorrow will show you large banners erected with a 1 Malaysia slogan attached to it. Below there, there is a small byline, that the visit is promptly sponsored by a certain ‘1 Malaysia mamak’.

1 Malaysia mamak? What the fu..? I was peacefully crunching a couple of chickens in Kajang that day as I randomly flickered to my right and saw a certain ‘Pengurup Wang Berlesen 1 Malaysia’. The chicken didn’t taste good after that.

By the way, for those who are wondering, 1 Malaysia Mamak refers to a famous Brickfields food outlet who graciously changed their name to ‘1 Malaysia Mamak’ after Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s visit to the restaurant.

Najib visited the 150 years celebration of the Telugu heritage in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago, and all the volunteers were wearing 1 Malaysia badges. Yes, the same ones those parliament blokes come up with day in day out.

Even the forthcoming Deathly Hallows characters such as Harry Potter and Lord Voldermort can’t have this much of power- it seems every place Najib graces his feet, 1 Malaysia resounds everywhere. Spark, here, there, everywhere, Satu Malaysia is all you will hear.

And I sit there, amazed, astonished, at what PR has become. Did my parents’ tax money actually go into hiring this PR Company to come up with this PR campaign?

The country has become so fragile nowadays that we need to see 1 Malaysia everywhere, just to remind people that this is ‘one country’. It’s a mantra we need to practice, we are all the same; we are all one. Sometimes I look at a 1 Malaysia banner and I see desperation.

What are these people trying to do? Because as far as I can see it, this whole 1 Malaysia concept is actually being used as a suck-up method rather than actually serving as a tagline to underscore a harmonious community.

First of all, we have managed to co-exist for half-a-century and to come up eons later with 1 Malaysia is certainly an eyebrow-raising act. If that’s not enough- it all came up after the March 8 election tsunami.

More diverse, specific communities are coming up and using the 1 Malaysia tagline to draw attention from the country’s top brass leaders. How is this tagline inclusive if more separate diasporas come out and demand what specifically suits their needs? Are we actually narrowing down borders and widening them?

The 1 Malaysia campaign, frankly, is an oxymoron- another sophisticated word so commonly used in the sophisticated PR realm. An oxymoron is not a compliment for any PR campaign. It’s more like ‘fail’ signage etched onto it.

Anyone who embraces the campaign and harps onto it, as simple as it gets, will be embraced warmly. Those who do not subscribe to these ideas, they will be watching from the outskirts.

But even then, those who are embraced only get that 15 minutes of date with the spotlight. It’s a smash and grab job, grab all you can get, take it and leave. What we are entitled to get without as much as having to sweet-talk anyone, we now have to play suck-up in order to attain them.

Whenever I am down depressed or suffering from stress, my friend uses this one famous line if I try to deflect by saying ‘I am ok’- ‘You don’t have to tell that you are okay if you really are okay. I will know it myself if you are okay. I wouldn’t even be asking, and you wouldn’t be explaining’.

Well, I rest my case there. I think that’s what all of us are hoping for. That one day when every stage show does not have to be carefully choreographed so that the Indian-Malay-Chinese composition tallies equally with each other, when we don’t have to see people yelling ‘1 Malaysia’ anymore. The day we stop talking about multi-racial, co-existence, and incorporation, we know we are past that stage.

Once upon a time, I thought we are way past that stage. Looks like all we are doing now is hitting a brick wall, and instead of pounding to break the wall- we want to climb our way up above the wall (read the 100-storey tower, mega-buildings, new highways) before we start moving again. When will we start addressing the quintessential problem of this country- which is that- almost every aspect of life is so politicized?

The answer is I don’t know. Till then, I will be a bemused spectator, and also at times, an active participant to make the wheel turn the other way around.

And yeah, now we have Rosmah Mansor’s karaoke video.

These are times when I am an amused spectator.

But end of the day- all I ask is- like in Rosmah’s video- when will tomorrow come?

A Ram Anand rant.

« »