Nowadays, we are engrossed in social media sites with the continuous updates of almost all Malaysians condemning cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and the government as a whole. The credibility of the cabinet ministers today is no longer respected as before. The position as a minister is no longer a grandeur that is highly regarded by the society.

Undoubtedly, this is because the economic situation is currently very pressing towards the people, and causing more and more to be burdened with the higher cost of living.

As a result, cabinet ministers became the main targets in the blaming game by the people with persistent insults and curses for their inability to handle the scenario well.

Despite the sources mentioned above, there is another factor that may be overstated by some people, but has become chronic due to ignorance.

What is the factor?

Yes, the weaker communication strategy among the ministers’ team! If we look today, most of the statements by ministers seem to be very stupid and often mocked. However, if conscientiously and studied in-depth, the statements are not that stupid or shallow, but easily and often distorted to show a good message on the contrary.

Ministers are often the victims of these cases and the most famous one is definitely, no other than Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Ahmad Maslan.

On the recent issue, if we look carefully, he actually tried to suggest Malaysians to venture into online business, but was misinterpreted and distorted by some manipulators and the message became otherwise. People now see that he seems to ask Malaysians to do two jobs instead.

Distorted messages

Not to forget, prior to that saga, there was a report saying that Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan advised people to choose old roads as an alternative route to avoid the toll. This statement really has no flaws as there are always alternative routes in order to avoid the roads with tolls in Malaysia.

But the message was distorted by spinners to show that the minister asked people to wake up early to avoid the tolls and thus it became the news headlines.

The line ministers’ communication unit was seen as feeble as to be unable to respond immediately and rectify the actual return message to be conveyed. If the problem is ignored, it eventually becomes a matter to be seen and cannot be corrected again. Indirectly, this impact is not only felt by the leaders, but felt by the government as a whole.

Actually, there are many alternative ways to control this negative perception and it should be seriously considered now. One way is leaders and the line communication unit of the ministry should actively reach out to all social media users, especially those who have great influence.

If we look at social sites - Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , and so on - behind all these channels there are individuals or certain groups (group page) who are very influential.

They can be considered as one of the alternative media who are increasingly gaining attention by the people. People readily accepted their message because there is infused humour to convey a serious message for relaxing. For example, Siakap Keli, Amran Fans, Sultan Malacca Fans, SukanStar, Beta Official, and so on.

Unfortunately, these groups are rarely approached by political leaders - especially in the ranks of government. It should be noted, these days the mainstream media is no longer the only source for people to get information. There are also those among the people who are more likely to trust sources of alternative media like this.

These influential groups should be approached seriously as a medium for a leader (minister, etc) to obtain the political mileage in order to help them win back the hearts of the people when good things about them have been written by that particular group page in the social media.

If they are not approached, they are more likely to condemn and keep indirectly influencing the minds of the people to hate the government and its leaders.

If this case is taken seriously, I’m pretty confident that the people's bad perception of the government and its leaders can be reduced - or at least kept under control from being further tarnished.