Tectonic shift in M'sian politics (4) : "Spin" in the nutshell and its weaknessess

As of my assessment, after diluting the discourse of “tampering with” from the government by various word bombarding through social media, the new plot of allegation has been hatched, although sooner than I think. (I thought that they will use more weeks than this, and using more concrete evidence to counter the discourse.)

So the short intermission stopped. The second half of the movie has then begun, and much more exciting since the beginning.

However, the decision to diluting the "tampering with" discourse instead of eliminating it, which might take more time, reflects two problems on taking such decision: (1) the rush of the allegation or the shortage of resources especially time, and (2) the maneuver from the government side.

WSJ incident

The new allegation is actually the extension of 1MDB. Although, general perception might come directly from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as understanding as WSJ incident, but actually it was a concerted effort from at least 3 medias: WSJ, Sarawak Report (SR), and Asia Sentinel.

On Friday 3 of July in the morning, WSJ has spearheaded its surprise attack with the article "Investigators Believe Money Flowed to Malaysian Leader Najib’s Account Amid 1MDB Probe", although with neither leaked document nor details, but equipped with powerful "infographic" with caption "Malaysian money trail". The infographic, a powerful information in this era, has specified directly that the money had flown from 1MDB through SRC International around RM 42 Million to Najib's account at AmBank during December 2014 - February 2015, and also through Tanore Finance in British Virgin Islands around USD 681 Million to the same account during March 21 and 25, 2013 via Falcon Private Bank in Singapore.

During the same time, SR has published similar article with much more details but with no "leaked documents" as used to be. In the evening, Asia Sentinel citied this incident in its report "Could this be the Smoking Gun for Malaysia’s PM?" with stunning interview from one unidentified source comparing the new allegation as "the nuke".

“If this is true, it’s a TKO for Najib,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer. “Go to jail, do not pass go. It looks like the Tun [Mahathir] has dropped the nuke.”

It's like throwing the flame on the gasoline. What to expect besides the nonstop comment and the burst of the outrage of the allegation after the news has been circulated among M'sian medias.

When I talk about the "concerted effort" it doesn't mean that WSJ joins hand with SR and Asia Sentinel as a joint attacking. But there was someone to have a talk to "planning" the "spin" through this 3 medias.

WSJ has its strength on the established international media organization, SR although losing the credibility with "tempering with" discourse and too early to recover from such lacking of credibility will response for the magnifying the details. While Asia Sentinel would finish it with scoop, as 3rd party & independent opinion.

So this "spin" has been designed to redeem SR's weakness on its credibility, by borrowing WSJ's and Asia Sentinel's instead.

Najib's counter measures

Was the new allegation successful?

Judging from the response of M'sian medias and the movement of key personnel in UMNO, it's enough to push back Najib's credibility to pre-Justo's incident, but not enough to topple him. In other word, it reverses Najib's credibility to be the same status as old 1MDB allegation did.

There is a conclusion of 1MDB allegation timeline at Singapore's The Straits Times here : http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/hard-for-...

But what's missing from this chart is a mentioning about the Najib's counter measures against alleged spin. Najib seems to use the same pattern again by starting with his statement on the Friday's night through 3 channels: Facebook, Twitter and Blog (not only Facebook as reported on many M'sian news portals), and also his announcement on the possibility to sue WSJ on the evening today.

The statement aims to completely reject the allegation with firm principle (...with our Chairmanship of ASEAN this year, and the prize of developed nation status around the corner. I will stay focused on the work of nation building for the people.), and accuses Dr M back of the mastermind behind the allegation.

Najib will require his own men to help counter the allegation to increase the weight of credibility, in this case it's Khairy Jamaluddin, Nazri Aziz, and Hishammuddin Hussein. Although, some UMNO men will go against Najib.

But this is not enough to "neutralize" the allegation. Last time, Najib used "A-G and PAC inquiry", "FAQ" and "Justo's incident" to dilute the 1MDB allegation, he might use the similar measures to counter the new allegation. Najib's sue over WSJ may serve the same purpose as "A-G and PAC inquiry" by using the jurisdiction to clear the allegation, and that will help him buy more time.

But what's the new measures similar to "FAQ" and "Justo's incident"?

The two measures were "political innovation" that made possible only by understanding the opponent's engineering over the alleged "spin" of 1MDB. The "FAQ" was to prioritize and categorize the allegation, and "Justo's incident" to understand that leaked 1MDB documents was from computer hacking.

It seems that WSJ got "leaked documents" regarding the money flow, so Ken Brown, Hong Kong bureau of WSJ gave his interview to CNBC to confirm that the report is based on solid "information". But by professionalism, WSJ decided not to publish the "leaked documents". This is the same approach as El País (Spain), Der Spiegel (Germany), Le Monde (France), The Guardian (United Kingdom) and The New York Times (United States) did with US diplomatic cables leaks by Wikileaks to decide which parts of the information to be disclosed to make less unintended effect to sensitive information, such as the name of Clandestine service agents agents. (The later decision of Wikileaks on disclosure the whole cables was from unintentionally leaked the leaked cables file on the internet. With Streisand effect, it's impossible to control the leaked information on the internet. So Wikileaks decided to publish the "authentic" leaked cables on their website.)

If I was Julian, I will contact more medias such as Washington Post (US), Financial Times (UK), and The Economist (UK) to publish the cables. By the way, neither Julian nor myself will trust WSJ on this matter. WSJ has its reputation on news and analysis of corporates, financial market, and economic status more than political news and analysis.

The interesting part of WSJ incident is what's the "solid information" according to Ken Brown?

If it is "leaked document" on money flow, how did he get it? Or how did "the man" handling him this document get it? And why SR doesn't publish it? (a problem of credibility with "tempering with" discourse?)

The money trail has ended with AmPrivate Banking account no "2112022011906" and "2112022010650" which accused to belong to Najib by SR. Only AmBank Islamic acknowledges this kind of information. Or else if it is in Thailand, only Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) can exercise legal power to enforce to the bank to investigate this kind of information. And as PAS' Datum Haron Din said WSJ's allegation is illogical because "anyone taking public funds for his own use would have a secret account for them, instead of using his personal account." Or as Najib said himself, "If I wanted to steal, surely I wouldn't steal the money and bring it into an account in Malaysia. That is, if I wanted to be a robber (penyamun). But of course, as a prime minister, I won't betray Malaysians and what belongs to Malaysians".

Besides, Najib has shielded up his protection by gearing the cooperation between M'sian police and Thai police on interrogation of Xavier Andre Justo, postpones the UMNO's poll for 18 months, and issues legal warning over "The Edge" on using "tampering with" information.

The spin in the nutshell

Many people may not realize that a smoking of cigarette nowadays is not naturally happened, instead it was a product of "Spin". Before that people would like to smoke cigar, and the selling of cigarette had increase because of the easy ration during the war at the trench.

It was Edward L Bernays, "the father of spin" who tried to break female market segment for cigarette. At that time it was still a taboo for women to smoke cigarette, as his recalled, "became obsessed by the prospect of winning over the large potential female market of Luckies. 'If I can crack that market, I'll get more than my share of it. It will be like opening a new gold mine right in our front yard.'"

Bernays thus employed tactic to exploit emotional feeling of women of slimness was coming into vogue, and cigarettes could be sold to the public, and especially to women, as a fat-free way to satisfy their hunger. He even set up the slogan, "Reach for a Lucky instead of a Sweet".

The campaign was so successful and generate a huge sells to American Tobacco as much as USD 32 million a year, although Barnays himself never smoked, and saying that "I didn't like the taste [of tobacco]. I prefer chocolate."

Later, he had exploited the "feminist" current by promoting cigarette's status as "the symbol of the independent feminist and the bold, glamorous flapper". In 1929, it was him to orchestrate an event in New York to get women to smoke convincing them that lighting those cigarettes, was lighting a torch of freedom. Cigarettes, which are equated with men, become torches of freedom.

In this parade, women smokers and their escorts will stroll from Forty-Eighth Street to Fifty-Fourth Street on Fifth Avenue between Eleven-Thirty and One O'Clock.

The formula was simple: Bernays generated events, the events generated news, and the news generated a demand for whatever he happened to be selling.

This is why Phillip morris has to start their Marlboro with female market first, before changing to male market with advertising of Cowboy and Marlboro Men later.

Bernays was the man who coined the world "Public Relations" instead of "Propaganda" which was heavily used by Germany during World War.

His book "Crystallizing Public Opinion" had been found at the bookshelf of Nazi's head of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.

Goebbels did employ techniques nearly identical to those used by Bernays -- skillfully exploiting symbols by making Jews into scapegoats and Hitler into the embodiment of righteousness; manipulating the media by trumpeting Nazi triumphs on the battlefield and hiding their extermination campaigns; and vesting unheard-of power in state propagandists just as Bernays had advised in Crytallizing.

This photo was taken at the event intentionally organized by Goebbels. It was the event to promote "the old German empire" as represented by Hindenburg, and "the new German empire" as represented by Hitler to display the image of "united" Germany to German people and to the world. It was very popular among the Germans at that time, before Hitler taken dictatorship power and project the image of the Third Reich to be reality and nightmare after the death of Hindenburg.

But we will find that "Spin", or "Public Relations", or "Propaganda" is possible by exploiting underlying or hidden forces of emotional feeling of "public opinion", whether by "slimness" or "feminist" or "German nationalism". And it's used to project some "truth" for business success or for public opinion manipulation.

So, I don't think an allegation of 1MDB or WSJ incident is equal to the truth. The truth is yet to be found. What I think it's much more interesting is the underlying forces deep inside the changing of every society. Spin doctor may utilize part of these underlying forces for the purpose shaping the opinion of the public. People may be attracted to temporary artificial reality. But in the long run, these underlying forces are beyond their control.