TMY vs DAP

About a month ago, after Malaysia's Prime Minister delivered the 2006 budget for the country, Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang placed a poll on his blog, asking what people think of the budget. I felt that the poll wasn't going to be accurate, since it was Kit's blog. I've been following his blog quite regularly, and it is obvious that a huge chunk of his readers are his supporters. So I guessed that when I clicked to see the poll results, a large number of people would oppose the budget, since Uncle Kit opposed it.

Anyway, I decided to have some fun with the Democratic Action Party (I think that's what DAP stands for) I just went to his latest blog post at the time, which was about the English language, and posted my two cents worth about the poll. Mind you, my comment had nothing to do with his English language post, but I, a concerned citizen, just needed an avenue to express my discontent towards the sometimes ridiculous opposition party.

So anyway, I typed this comment.

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Hey Lim Kit Siang, do you know that polls are not objective, and that your recent poll on whether the national budget was good or bad was the perfect example of how opinion polls can be skewed?

Let me ask you a few things.

1) Who do you think reads your blogs regularly? I'd say mostly, they're your fans. I say mostly because I'm not your fan and I read your blog.

2) To follow up from the previous question, who do you think are the people who would vote in your opinion poll? Obviously your readers. No idiot is gonna log on to your site just to pop a vote.

3) So who are the voters? Obviously, most of them would be your fans. So since they are your fans, they'd most likely share your view right?

Conclusion: If you are going to use that poll as a representation of what Malaysians think about the new budget, think again. It should be "What a majority of DAP people think about Budget 2006?"

Try putting polls about how to improve your party, not about what DAP supporters think about what others are doing. You do not represent the country. BN supporters do not represent the country as well. So get a life with your opinion polls.

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Ok, I admit I used some rather strong words that would certainly result in some attacks on me. But I think for you guys, especially those studying in Monash Communications, would realize that I just rehashed lecture notes of a certain subject.

So anyway, I waited for reactions. I had set myself up for 24 hours of political fame in the citizen league of politicians...

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TMY,

why dont u go and setup your own stupid blog? Let the people go vote in your blog and you can gauge the people's opinions there.

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TMY, we should get together and talk. I'm not exactly a fan of Uncle Kit either. Still, it's good to get an understanding of people's views, whoever they are.

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At this stage, I decided to make another post. This is so because I was rather surprised at people's seriousness in my post.

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of course we should get together and talk. i was pointing out a drawback for opinion polls in a niche site like this. if you can't accept that its skewed and politically directed, then very sorry for you.

my objective of the above poll was not to diss lim kit siang, (there are better things to diss him about, really, but i choose not to because after all, he's the opposition leader and i'm sure he has valid reason to say the things he does.

my objective was to create a certain awareness that in seemingly harmless things such as the opinion poll, unnecessary perceptions can be formed, and i am merely stating my viewpoints to let you guys know that not everything on this blog is genuinely a malaysian voice.

again, if you can't accept my viewpoint, its all good. not everything here is an angelic piece of blogware u know.

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Ok now I'm just going to post exerpts of what followed... It's all in order. Postings in blue are my remarks.

Those I've highlighted in bold are particularly interesting statements.

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Uncle Kit, has acknowledge openly about the lack of diversity of sample (respondent) for example here (Did the home work for you).

And by the way the question for the current opinion poll reads :
How do you rate Budget 2006?

And obviously, "YOU" here is those who have visited this blog, which can be labeled as Uncle Kit's blog reader (regular or not, we won't know). Nobody can conclusively says that most Uncle Kit's blog visitors/readers are DAP fans. Internet users are ultra diverse lot.

Did Uncle Kit calimed the polls result to be definitive representation of Malaysian's view?

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there are many spoken and unspoken power relations at work, and to not see them, is silly ignorance.

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TMY is probably an MCA/BN/UMNO man! May I ask him what he means by "Malaysian Voice".
Take any topic and try an opinion poll and you get a diversity of responses.
Or Take any website, any blog, the voting is based on those who visit these pages.
By the same reasoning, Kit's blog cannot represent the voice of the entire nation but it can give a fairly accurate "malaysian voice"on the subject in question.
Does the Malaysian Media report the "malaysian voice"? Why not go after it TMY?

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obviously he is not a bn fella to be humiliated in such a way.

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Well said, Libra. Some ppl are just gullible and naive but they think they have very deductive and rational brains. Thks. Dennis.

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(This is one good response. I half agree with him)

No matter how biased is Uncle Lim's online poll, I strongly believe whatever statistics released by our govt on the media is even worse.

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hope u r not the idiot who pop a vote to support your ideal party.


so get a life and ask your president to voice out for transparencies, accountability & fairness. dont just keep their mouth shut while we pay their salary.

u also mention spoken and unspoken power. do u mind to share.

since u understand so well in power please let us know as well what tdm meant there is a very great power behind mahlell termination.

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Kit siang, i can safely say three quarters of readers who express their opinions in your blog are functional illiterates who cant think and who do not respect other people's opinion. can we do a survey on that.

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Jangan marah lah ...

That guy got gaji from the other side can afford to kacau kacau here ....

We have our work to do lah ..........

.... CHEH ! last warning -- don't like, don't come .....

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Don't force us to read your trash .... and go oink in your animal farm ...

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A government that intentionally creates AP Kings, Overnight Millionaires, and Corrupted Ministers while denying simple basic charity cannot possibly be a worthy government. It can only be an indecent one.

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Of course, the latter paragraph doesn't apply to the majority of Uncle Kit's blog readers, since, after all, most of us here are DAP supporters or at least sympathetic to the opposition in general. Nevertheless, to each his own. My point here is simple: Be open-minded, and don't jump to conclusions about others.

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I think i really like what johnleemk said about being open minded and how not to label people here and there as this and that. well, let me say that i'm certainly not a BN fan. And I'm not a DAP fan either. And i'm even using the word "fan" very loosely.

There was an earlier post earlier about how all polls wouldn't be accurate. can't remember who said that. but thats exactly true. and that's what i'm trying to say.

u know, i really don't mind people calling me names and all that, but at least try to get what i'm trying to say lah. there are things on this blog that is not meant to be taken seriously, like that poll for example, and some of the posts on this blog.

neither have i resorted to suggesting that we should/must conform to the ways and methods of our current ruling party. If it is all about that, then I simply do not want to trade one sort of conformity (BN style) for another conformity (DAP style). Makes no difference to me.

Oh, yes, i'm gullible, and i'm actually not very rational. But again, who's not guilible. The fact that you are exactly who you are they way you are is already proof that you've been guillible enough to allow yourself to be grown and constructed to be so and so.

if you didn't understand what i just said, let me make it very clear it is not your intelligence that is lacking, nor is it my writing that is lacking. it is merely a certain unfamiliarity of discourses, and your refusal (or mine) to find out more

Ding.

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excuse me, this site is not about symphathetic to dap. this site is about fighting for transparencies, accountability & fairness.

this site is not for you to gauge open minded. if you are so open minded why do you coment on other people posting. this site is not a place for you to teach people how to suck balls. please do not offend others in your teaching. whether others want to accept or not is their choice.

the way you write is like mahaguru. it makes u sound so matured where in fact i am not sure whether u r. i guess i do not understand what u said and what do u want to prove.

please put a poll on how to improve yourself.

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Some people talk big and talk "mature" but deep inside their heart, it's full of emptiness and guiltiness...

We know what we are doing, we know what we are talking about and we know what we want from our paralysis government.
We are True Justice Malaysian!

cheer!

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and what pray tell, is a true justice malaysian? ha. ha.

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And that was my bit of fun for that particular day. I didn't know people can be so hostile. My lecturer told me that Malaysian's have no sense of humor. I quite agree. Hope you guys got a good laugh out of this.