Established parties rely on fear to win votes, says Nik Nazmi

 The Bersama leader accuses DAP and Umno of resorting to ‘ghost stories’ about what could happen if their rivals come to power.

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said Bersama wants to avoid repeating the mistakes of older political parties.

PETALING JAYA:

Bersama leader Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has accused established political parties of relying on fear to win votes instead of convincing Malaysians to support them for their policies and principles.

Nik Nazmi claimed such parties had resorted to “ghost stories” about what could happen if their rivals came to power.

“DAP will say that if you vote for Bersama, PAS will become the government, or Umno will take power.

“Umno plays the same game. It says DAP will take power if the Malays are not united. That’s the game. Politics of fear,” he said at an event in Penang tonight.

Nik Nazmi said Bersama wanted to avoid repeating what he described as the mistakes of older political parties and was planning its moves carefully.

“We want to learn from the mistakes of older political parties. Bersama will be truly different. Yes, we want power, but we want it the right way,” he said.

He said such an approach meant Bersama would need time to establish itself, estimating that it could take five to seven years for the party to build enough support to challenge the country’s major political parties.

He also said Penang’s electoral history showed that voters in the state were willing to embrace political change, pointing to the 2008 state election, when Pakatan Rakyat took power from Barisan Nasional.

“In 2008, you voted for DAP and PKR. So our hope is that you will vote for us if you are tired of what is happening in Penang,” he said. - FMT

Indonesian beauty queen Putri Andriani Juficha dies at 25

 

Photos: Putri Andriani Juficha/Instagram

Miss Earth Indonesia 2025 Putri Andriani Juficha has died at the age of 25. Her death was announced on what would have been her 26th birthday on Saturday, Aug 15.

The organisation of Miss Grand Indonesia, where Juficha previously competed, confirmed the beauty queen’s demise through a statement on its Instagram page. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

“With deepest sorrow, the Miss Grand Indonesia Organization mourns the passing of Putri Andriani Juficha, Runner-Up Miss Grand Indonesia 2025,” the pageant organisation said.

Paying tribute to Juficha, it wrote, “You were more than a titleholder. You were part of our Grand family, a beautiful soul whose grace, strength, and spirit touched so many hearts.

“Although your journey with us has come to an end far too soon, the memories, love, and light you shared will forever remain in our hearts. May you rest peacefully in the embrace of the Almighty, and may your beautiful soul find eternal peace.”

Miss Grand Indonesia also offered prayers and message of comfort to Juficha’s family.

“Rest in peace, Putri. You will always be a part of our Grand family,” it added.

Juficha won Miss Earth Indonesia in 2025. In the same year, she also competed and finished as a runner-up at Miss Grand Indonesia. - Philipine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network

The thin line between caring and control

 

Letter to Editor

“If you really love me, you will do that.” Upon hearing this statement, it sounds like an expression of love, loyalty, or commitment.

However, a form of emotional manipulation may lie beneath ini loving words. This form of emotional manipulation quietly pressures you to act against your own wishes, needs, and personal choices.

It is simply an emotional situation when someone’s words make you agree and say ‘Yes’ when you want to say ‘No’.

When you hear the word blackmail, you often associate it with threats involving money, revealing secrets, and damaging information.

Yet, we should keep in mind that not all forms of blackmail involve financial gain.

A less visible form is known as emotional blackmail, where words, phrases, and relationships turn into tools for controlling decisions or influencing behaviour within families, friendships, workplaces, and other social institutions.

The term “emotional blackmail” was introduced in the 1990s by psychotherapist Susan Forward, who reported three key factors that cause someone to be a victim of blackmail: 1) Fear, 2) Obligation, and 3) Guilt (FOG).

That is, when you are emotionally blackmailed, you feel pressured to do what others want to avoid conflict, rejection, or guilt.

The carefully chosen emotional phrases may trigger fear, obligation, or guilt, making you unconsciously feel that you have no choice but to comply.

What makes emotional blackmail particularly concerning is that it often remains invisible. Unlike direct forms of coercion, emotional blackmail can be disguised as love, care, loyalty, or concern, making you sacrifice your own preferences, comfort, or well-being.

Fear

Fear is one of the strongest tools used in emotional blackmail. It refers to the anxiety of negative consequences if you do not obey or follow what is said.

For example, fear in emotional blackmail can take different forms and expressions: a fear of losing the relationship, as in “I will leave you or I will never forgive you”; fear of conflict or anger, as in “I will get angry if you do not listen to what I have said”; fear of rejection or abandonment, “I think we need a break from each other”. It could even occur as a fear of harm: “I can live no more.”

For this reason, evoking fear becomes a powerful tool, as it pressures individuals to comply with the blackmailer’s demands in order to avoid perceived negative outcomes.

This fear is also visible in political communication. For example, following the September 11 attacks, former US President George W. Bush stated: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” This statement reflected fear-based blackmail as it created social pressure to compel support, rejecting neutrality in his war against Afghanistan.

Obligation

Obligation refers to the feeling of duty or debt toward someone, while no genuine obligation exists.

Therefore, obligation in emotional blackmail can be understood in various everyday statements: “I must always support them because they are my family…”

“They helped me before, so I owe them now…” “I should put their needs above my own…”

“A good daughter/partner would never refuse.”

The blackmailer here creates emotional distress that shakes your ability to make independent decisions, ending in prioritising others’ preferences.

Similarly, political leaders have also used obligation-based language to encourage loyalty and collective action. For example, the current US President Donald Trump has used such expressions to frame political action as a duty.

His statement, “We can’t let them take our country,” generates a moral obligation and collective responsibility to prevent undesirable outcomes and perceived threats.

Guilt

Guilt is not about being guilty of a real crime or wrong act. It rather involves a perceived emotional guilt induced by another person.

Unlike legal guilt, guilt-based emotional pressure is usually created through statements like: “After everything I’ve done for you… “You should know better…”; “Family always comes first…”

Therefore, such expressions are designed to make you feel responsible for another person’s disappointment, unhappiness, or suffering.

An example was observed in Princess Diana’s famous 1995 BBC interview, when she stated: “There were three of us in this marriage.”

This statement was widely interpreted as a powerful expression of emotional pain that evoked public sympathy and emotional reflection.

As a result, understanding emotional blackmail is important because it often goes unrecognised in everyday life.

It often hides behind socially valued emotions such as love, loyalty, sacrifice, and responsibility that we have always been encouraged to practice.

Therefore, recognising such language patterns helps distinguish between healthy relationships and toxic relationships.

Two strategies are suggested, the first of which is awareness, followed by a rational response.

While awareness can improve your emotional literacy and help set healthier interpersonal boundaries, responding to it more rationally helps distinguish between genuine responsibilities and obligations imposed through manipulation.

You should train yourself to communicate your limits firmly and respectfully, making it clear what behaviour is acceptable and what is not.

The ultimate goal in human life is ensuring that relationships are built on respect, honesty, and free choice rather than emotional coercion.

You should know how and when to say ‘No’, especially when your freedom to make your own choices is being subtly undermined.

Dr Hanaa Naji Saleh Samaha is a Lecturer at the Department of English Language, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

- ocus Malaysia

Datametrics serves up healthy competition for Malaysia’s investment community

 

DATAMETRICS Research and Information Centre (DARE), an integrated prospectus solutions company, brought together members of Malaysia’s investment and capital market community in a different setting recently, hosting its inaugural pickleball tournament aimed at promoting healthy living while strengthening relationships across the industry.

The tournament attracted more than 50 participants and supporters, with 16 open-gender doubles teams competing for honours. Participants represented a cross-section of the capital market ecosystem, including investment bankers, corporate finance practitioners, fund managers, lawyers, sponsors and other industry stakeholders.

GUtC, represented by Ivan Lee and Suzanne Ong, emerged tournament, while Apex Securities Bhd, represented by Eric Chong and Toh Jen Shen, finished second. Baker Tilly Malaysia, represented by Pua Tze Han and Samuel Lau Lik Siong, took third place.

Pankaj Kumar, Managing Director of DARE, said, “The tournament reflected our organisation’s desire to engage the investment community beyond its traditional professional and business environment.”

“The investment and capital markets are demanding industries, where professionals often work long hours and operate under considerable pressure. Through this tournament, we wanted to encourage our industry colleagues to make health, fitness and personal wellbeing an equally important priority,” said Pankaj.

“Pickleball was an ideal choice because it is accessible, highly social and competitive at the same time. More importantly, it provided an opportunity for people from different segments of the investment community to interact and build relationships in a relaxed environment outside the usual boardroom, conference or corporate setting,” he added.

The tournament was sponsored by CTH Unlimited, a sports and activewear brand under Cheetah; Dinky, a pickleball lifestyle brand and GUtC, a prebiotic soda brand produced by The Tapping Tapir.

The event was also supported by Acendus Communications Sdn Bhd and Esente Advisory Sdn Bhd. 

Winners received trophies, Dinky pickleball bags and cash vouchers, with the total value of prizes amounting to RM5,000.

Pankaj added that DARE has always believed that a strong investment community is built not only through information, research and professional interaction, but also through meaningful relationships between the people who make up the industry.

“We hope this inaugural tournament is the beginning of something we can grow in the years ahead, bringing an even broader section of the capital market community together while continuing to champion active and healthy lifestyles,” he concluded.—  Focus Malaysia

Inside Scoop staff ticked off for bad service by expecting Korean tourist to communicate in BM

 

A “third-class or third-world mentality” describes a profound lack of civic consciousness, social etiquette and empathy where individuals fail to match modern physical infrastructure or societal progress with responsible personal behaviour. 

So disgusted was one Inside Scoop customer upon stumbling across such a perceived lack of class at the ice cream parlour’s KLCC outlet that she actually left the store sans satisfying her sweet tooth cravings. 

Threader ndhiirh (@ndhiirh) overheard a staff complain to her counterpart, “I know it is the customer’s mother tongue, but why doesn’t she learn my language?”

Contending that the staff was lucky the Korean customer did not understand her grumbling, the Threader groused that it would have been different if the staff had at least tried to communicate in English before venting her spleen. 

Attitude problem

Apart from labelling the work ethic and lack of linguistic skills as “third class mentality”, she added “stupid” for good measure to underline her utter contempt for the Inside Scoop staff’s entitled expectations. 

As a matter of fact, the Korean ice cream fan had tried to communicate in English but the staff insisted on replying in Malay. 

The poster remarked she could understand if the customer was rude but it did not appear to be the case here. “Kindy be reminded it’s your job. Please treat customers properly,” she advised. 

Her observations on this F&B (food& beverage) outlet’s customer service elicited plenty of traction, not least from Inside Scoop itself with the home grown ice-cream brand reaching out for more details on the incident.

It was pointed out quite rightly that ample service training needs to be part of the industry culture and not left for staff to figure out for themselves. 

One commenter argued that “proper training in communication, culture and handling customers” would allow the “the whole service industry to level up”. 

Good staff training, however, does seem to be lacking in at this specific Inside Scoop outlet in KLCC. One observer noted that the staff at the outlet seem to have a “forced to work here” attitude. 

Another recounted being made fun of when it was the staff who misunderstood her order regarding the “cempedak goreng” flavour. All in all, it’s not a good look for Inside Scoop, particularly the KLCC outlet. 

Tit-for-tat

Some commenters did make the exception that if a customer was being difficult in insisting that people use their own language, then it was tit-for-tat. Otherwise, if effort was made to communicate in English, the staff should respond in kind. 

However, there were those who felt that the staff was right to have an entitled attitude, citing their own experiences abroad. 

Recalling locals in foreign countries who would only speak their own language while tourists had to rely on translators, perhaps similar sentiment should be expected here in Malaysia.

There was backlash though to that viewpoint with one linguist arguing that the ability to communicate in both English and BM is essential, especially in the hospitality industry. “This is NOT Japan,” he exclaimed. “If a customer speaks to you in English, then respond in English.” 

Few things to note about this little Tower of Babel adventure in an ice cream store.

First and foremost, its Visit Malaysia Year 2026 (VMY 2026) and its all hands to the pump in trying to woo international tourists and their precious foreign currency.

What is the point in inviting them here if Malaysians are going to treat them like the above?

Secondly, proper staff training, especially those on the frontline interacting with customers and representing the brand image, should never be compromised. 

The cost of hiring poorly equipped staff can be enormous as one mishap captured on a smartphone and viralled on social media can do untold damage to a brand. 

It is mind-boggling that staff who are not conversant in English was hired to man a counter at a premium ice cream parlour in a high traffic tourist area such as the KLCC. 

Last but not least, to those who believe that the staff was right in thinking the tourist should communicate in Malay (via a translator), perhaps this commenter’s retort summed it up best when he declared “they act as if the world owe them something.” 

“You chose the job. Take pride in what you do!” he exclaimed in disgust. — Focus Malaysia