Kangkung-gate Part 1: Information Fatigue and A Discerning Electorate

On 12 January 2014, Malaysia PM Najib Razak commented that the price of kangkung or water spinach in the market had dropped. He said that when prices dropped, no one praised the Government but when prices rise, everyone condemned the Government. The usage of kangkung was as an example, but his emphasis of it has sparked much frenzy in Malaysia.

In Part1 of this 2-part special write-up on an issue close to heart (and plates) of most Malaysians, I’ll be looking at how the Kangkung phenomena is actually a sign of a society where information fatigue is setting in.

Introduction

[1]    There is more information in a week's worth of the New York Times than a person was likely to come across in their entire lifetime in the 18^th century. So says this YouTube video.  

[2]    Now, take this fact and relate it to your personal informational exposure. Add the fact that smartphones are ubiquitous and give us 24/7 access to the internet. What you now have is a complete, limitless and verifiable source of knowledge at your fingertips, ready to be accessed at any time.

[3]     Despite this, everyone has been so damn obsessed with the Kangkung.

[4]     While I don’t have anything against Kangkung, til' today I still don’t know what the PM’s speech was about. For many it does not matter. The Kangkung is symbolic, they say, of society’s grouses against leaders who are disconnected from reality. This is sensible. Possibly true. But so is the converse: The speech possibly had redeeming features. The problem is that despite complete and verifiable knowledge at our fingertips, many of us were happy to stop at Kangkung.

[5]    I think this indicative of a bigger symptom: Information fatigue.

Point 1: Information Overload

[6]    Yes, information overload is a thing[2]. Having self-diagnosed, I’m convinced I have it – and so do most of my friends, and from my observations, Malaysians.

[7]    Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and countless on-line sites, we have become information zombies.

[8]    The X-Files would say “The Truth is Out There” (God says it too, I think). I would say “Too many ‘truths’ are out there. So how la?”

[9]    Consequently, I find myself getting less patient and able to read through entire articles. I skip from ‘X Diversifies Investment Portfolio’ to ‘Cat-Pandas Are Real’ to ‘Star Wars Character Quiz’ without so much as a backwards glance, awaiting the next interesting stimulating thing.

[10] Unfortunately, despite the impression of being empowered and educated, I can't recall most of the information I had come across in the day. Even if I did, it's all cursory.

[11] Who cares about the details, right? That’s just where the devil is.

Point 2: The Problem with Information Overload

[12]  I have a few concerns.

[13]  Firstly, I feel that we lose the ability to be more considerate and calculative. Example: Yes, the Kangkung example was insensitive (let’s not even go into 'quails egg' example used by PM in response [3]), but the speech leading up to it contained important information (to be covered in Part 2).

[14]  In actual fact, the PM’s speech on that fateful day shows that he and his Government is aware of the difficulties facing the Rakyat. We are eventually informed that a committee had been set up to look into the issue and coordinate a response with the various ministries involved [4]. Some analysts[5] disagree with the need for a committee and lament the very fact, but committees, in all fairness can be useful. 

[15]  Another example, that of the usage of Ungku Aziz’s name in the fiasco, in my view, was bad taste. It was clarified as a hoax relatively quick, but by then it was widespread that many still aren’t aware of it being a hoax. In this information fatigued age, we get information, and are less motivated to verify. 

[16]  Secondly, information overload enables political exploitation of intellect. In a time of increasing political polarisation, information overload makes us less sensible people. We read “Najib", "kangkung", and "turun harga”, and we burst into this furore about how the PM is out of touch and insensitive. This is possibly a little unfair for reasons above.

[17]  Admittedly, Kangkung was just part of many recent faux pas’ by the PM, but right thinking members of civil society must hold themselves to a higher standard, and not allow emotions and the short-cut mentality caused by information overload to get the better of us.

[18]  Politicians shoving Kangkung into an effigy of the PM[6]aren’t any better than those who protested against it[7], yet somehow one group thinks they are in the ‘right’ while the other thinks the other group is ‘backwards’[8]. I’ll let you figure out which is which (here’s a clue: It works both ways).

[19]  Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, in defending the Kangkung flash mob by citing that others having done worse things doesn’t make what his people did any better. It’s like saying “I may have lied, but at least I didn’t steal”. Information fatigue means many buy into this rhetoric.

Conclusion

[20] Taking a step back, enjoying a teh tarik (kurang manis) at the local mamak, and putting away that smart phone is actually more important for our democracy than we realise.  

[21]  We may still come to the same conclusions (I doubt many of our convictions will change), but at least we do so with a clearer mind.

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[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE

[2] http://www.naturalnews.com/041057_internet_fatigue_information_overload_news.html#

[3] http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/01/17/Najib-Hits-Back-Kangkung/

[4] http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/a-special-committee-to-check-rise-in-prices

[5] http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/no-need-for-special-committee-on-rising-cost-of-living-says-analyst

[6] http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/flashmob-treats-najib-to-kangkung-in-protest-of-price-hikes

[7] http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/penang-umno-threatens-may-13-retaliation-over-oppositions-kangkung-flashmob

[8] http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/pkr-man-s-effigy-act-despicable-1.464900