Too much information via SMS is bad for Politicians

Link: Malaysian National News Agency :: BERNAMA.

There is no need to gauge the popularity of leaders through short messaging service (SMS) as it does not reflect their actual capabilities, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

I’ve been following this story recently.  It spiked a bit of interest… it’s fascinating to see how some people react to new mediums and technologies.

The SMS poll pitted two potential leaders of the MIC party head to head.  It wasn’t at all scentifically arranged, it was simply a rough and ready popularity contest.  This has irked quite a few of the protagonists though. (In particular, I’d imagine it’s annoyed the people who didn’t come out on top of the poll).

"We don’t want to benchmark popularity as it will create anxiety among our members," he [Deputy PM Najib] said.

"If there is a contest, we will follow the party process. Vote for
the leader and after that wait for the next contest. No point of
conducting a popularity test every six months to compare who is great,"
he said.

Ahh now this quote in particular is very interesting.

With SMS, you can text every one of your party members and get a popularity indication within 10 minutes, let alone every 6 months 😉   But then you don’t want to know this if you’re in power, trying to stay there, and trying to convince the media that everyone really likes your policies ("here, have a look at this favourable opinion poll we conducted…")