Pseudo-events.
Pseudo-events is one aspect of political communication that occurs when information supposedly concealed by certain politician is being leaked or revealed. Living in an age of social media today, most politician tend to resort to this kind of communication in order to seek attention and gain prominence. Whether we realise it or not, we have been anticipated in pseudo-events communication in some degrees.
For example, when Pandan MP revealed his donation account details, he hoped to get appraisal among the public for transparency, at least among the politicians, including from his own party. But then much more leaked information has been revealed by his opponent that paints perception that he is using NGO to justify payment into his own company. In some sense, his pseudo-events strategy has backfired and he might face investigation.
The same case can also be noted against a politician who suddenly held an emotional press conference (to get positive media exposure, of course) revealing that he has turned down Oxford and RM5 million bribe so that he could contest in the next general election and subsequently save Malaysia. But this pseudo-events tactic has backfired even before his tears dried up, when the opponent revealed the discrepencies in his own Oxford Uni offer letter. Not only his communication objectives has not been met, he also has open up opportunities for his opponent to attack and labelling him even more.
More classic example of pseudo-events gone wrong can be dug up involving both political divide in Malaysia. Though how tempting it might have to reveal ones secret, just remember that we might get the whole things wrong and eventually shoot on our own foot back. So it is better to contemplate further before we decide to leak the enemy's darkest secret.
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