Perception in Malaysian Politics

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.What one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, one’s culture and the interpretation of the perceived. If the percept does not have support in any of these perceptual bases it is unlikely to rise above perceptual threshold. But most of the time perception maybe subjective when it comes to the truthfullness of an issue.

Perception are also the main essence of our nation current political development. Take an example the sexual misconduct allegation of DSAI. The issue has also divided the nation. You either believe that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a compulsive sodomite or he is a frequent victim of a government conspiracy to prevent him from becoming the next prime minister.

After all, politics is all about perception. But in Malaysia, with the credibility of the government, judiciary, police and media in question, facts and evidence no longer matter. And who can blame Malaysians? You have a private investigator P. Balasubramaniam who made incredulous allegations against Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in a statutory declaration, which ranged from anal sex to commission for a submarine deal, and then retract them barely 24 hours later.

The man should be arrested and charged in court. The perception of Malaysians now is that a statutory declaration can be written by anyone, in the presence of any lawyer, and sealed for RM6 in front of any commissioner of oath.

The federal government needs to build the confidence of the people and show that it can steer them out of the troubled waters as the price of crude oil continues to climb. Businesses have slowed down and jobs are being lost all over the world.