By Kee Thuan Chye

A LARGE part of politics hinges on perception. And the public perception of Pakatan Rakyat, especially of its component party PKR, is currently negative or one of scepticism. This is due in part to Pakatan’s own doing – as is evident in recent instances of major in-fighting among party members – and in part to merciless mainstream media spin.

Pakatan itself cannot counter the spin. It does not have a well-organised spin machinery of its own, and it does not have its own newspapers, radio and TV stations that reach out nationwide. Countering spin is also something that needs to be done on a daily basis. If a spin is not nipped in the bud and is allowed to grow instead, it will be that much harder to debunk it later.

In Selangor, Pakatan has been bringing out Selangorkini, a weekly rag in Bahasa Malaysia that is supposed to provide some profile to the Pakatan-led state government’s activities and achievements, but this is not well-distributed. Many Selangorians are not even aware of its existence. In late November, the English-language Selangor Times was launched, but its target readership is mainly urbanites. Pakatan needs more than the votes of the urban areas to win the next general election. In fact, it needs a lot more to win the next general election. As it is, it cannot match what the BN Government is touting – a brighter future, a Malaysia with high-income status by 2020, through projects under the Economic Transformation Programme. Never mind that this is actually still a dream, an illusion; BN has been selling it on a grand scale to make it seem real. And the irony is, people are actually buying it.
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