Just in case you're interested, here's the latest PM's approval rating as announced by an independent opinion research group. It's 72% in May, up from 69% in April and 44% when he's sworn in in April 2009. At this rate his rating will hit 108% by May next year. Sorry, can't help a jibe. Apparently this 'contractor' has been secretly tracking PM's popularity on monthly basis, and has selectively made known the numbers. Secret and selective? I mean, have you seen this 44% published when it's 44%? As usual sycophants are braying for early polls. PM would be wise not to read too much into this feel-good statistics. His predecessor's approval was at 60% just two months before he lost Selangor, Penang, Kedah, WP and Perak. Bloggers and opposition hatchet men dismissed these numbers outright and on sight : misleading, meaningless, mindless, and the usual opprobrium. I've had some experience in marketing and consumer research run by research agencies when I was with Petronas Dagangan. The findings were so fraught with inconsistencies and outliers that we'd to normalise for the final report. The point here is that research, any research, is susceptible to a varying degree of rigging. Asking an opinion about PM of the day is even trickier. Granted Malaysia is not North Korea. But we're not New Zealand either. For all the One Malaysia atmospherics, the level of respondents' objectivity, frankness and sarcasm is a big blind spot, and this indeed should be an opportune subject for a separate and secret research.
I'm not sure why, but I just can't resist a take on ragging while on the subject of rating. Probably because of the rigging subtext just now. Ragging and rigging rhyme so bloody well. Incidentally both are evil. After a respite, ragging is back with a vengeance when an RMC student died in a botched ragging ritual. It sparked off fiery debates and clarion calls for stern and swift action. My stance on this issue is unequivocal: ragging, bullying, hazing, initiation and similar forms of abuse in schools, ivory towers, twin towers or anywhere is cruel, criminal, despicable and reprehensible. All the reasons and justifications advanced by some lame-brained ragging rogues are lame excuses at best. Ragging instills respect and humility? Bull. It's nothing more than a cheapish, thuggish and agricultural form of entertainment. No amount of research or study will ever show that ragging victims would be better off or more successful in life. The reverse is more likely. I know you'd suspect that Bung Mokhtar was a ragging victim in his formative years. Ragging is one last, meaningless and purposeless sentimental holdover from the bygone British imperialist streak. One only wonders how has this relic found its way into the bowels of our education system and left undone for so many years.
My own ragging experience is minimal. My first year in a residential secondary school at Tiger Lane (in Ipoh, not India) was a cakewalk. We're pampered and protected like rural princes. That's the way it was and all's well long after I left until about ten years ago, when the school somehow lost all its humdrum grace and glory, and turned into a hotbed of systematic ragging, extortion and gangsterism. Reading all the scathing media headlines and public condemnation, it's hard not to feel sad and angry. The school managed to recover but was never quite able to completely shake off this dark episode. When I enrolled at a local U, I skipped most of the two-week orientation program, and watched movies instead. There's no bigger misnomer. It's disorientation in disguise. I checked into campus when classes started and didn't really feel bad or uninspired like I'd missed something. I made a lot of friends and graduated, not at the top of the class, but enough to land a decent job and retire blissfully. Going by the raggers' rationale, I'd have become a humbler, more respectful and better person overall had I attended the two-week life-changing orientation program. A member of parliament, maybe?
So what do we do? Legislate against ragging, that's what we should do. Criminalize it. Don't generalize or dilute it under violent conduct or ungentlemanly behaviour (that's ok for football). Outlaw it under a Rag Act or something, or, better still, classify ragging as attempted rape, or just about anything that justifies strong police action and quality time behind bars, preferably with real and serial rapists. I'm sure a Rag Bill would have an easy passage and a minimum of debate in parliament!
I'm not sure why, but I just can't resist a take on ragging while on the subject of rating. Probably because of the rigging subtext just now. Ragging and rigging rhyme so bloody well. Incidentally both are evil. After a respite, ragging is back with a vengeance when an RMC student died in a botched ragging ritual. It sparked off fiery debates and clarion calls for stern and swift action. My stance on this issue is unequivocal: ragging, bullying, hazing, initiation and similar forms of abuse in schools, ivory towers, twin towers or anywhere is cruel, criminal, despicable and reprehensible. All the reasons and justifications advanced by some lame-brained ragging rogues are lame excuses at best. Ragging instills respect and humility? Bull. It's nothing more than a cheapish, thuggish and agricultural form of entertainment. No amount of research or study will ever show that ragging victims would be better off or more successful in life. The reverse is more likely. I know you'd suspect that Bung Mokhtar was a ragging victim in his formative years. Ragging is one last, meaningless and purposeless sentimental holdover from the bygone British imperialist streak. One only wonders how has this relic found its way into the bowels of our education system and left undone for so many years.
My own ragging experience is minimal. My first year in a residential secondary school at Tiger Lane (in Ipoh, not India) was a cakewalk. We're pampered and protected like rural princes. That's the way it was and all's well long after I left until about ten years ago, when the school somehow lost all its humdrum grace and glory, and turned into a hotbed of systematic ragging, extortion and gangsterism. Reading all the scathing media headlines and public condemnation, it's hard not to feel sad and angry. The school managed to recover but was never quite able to completely shake off this dark episode. When I enrolled at a local U, I skipped most of the two-week orientation program, and watched movies instead. There's no bigger misnomer. It's disorientation in disguise. I checked into campus when classes started and didn't really feel bad or uninspired like I'd missed something. I made a lot of friends and graduated, not at the top of the class, but enough to land a decent job and retire blissfully. Going by the raggers' rationale, I'd have become a humbler, more respectful and better person overall had I attended the two-week life-changing orientation program. A member of parliament, maybe?
So what do we do? Legislate against ragging, that's what we should do. Criminalize it. Don't generalize or dilute it under violent conduct or ungentlemanly behaviour (that's ok for football). Outlaw it under a Rag Act or something, or, better still, classify ragging as attempted rape, or just about anything that justifies strong police action and quality time behind bars, preferably with real and serial rapists. I'm sure a Rag Bill would have an easy passage and a minimum of debate in parliament!
No comments:
Post a Comment