PKR has been criticised for breaking rank in using its own logo rather than the Pakatan Harapan (PH) logo in the forthcoming Johor election. Speaking as an ordinary PKR member, I am of the opinion that it is unfair to label the party’s use of its own logo as breaking away from PH or a sign of disunity. There are valid reasons for PKR to choose its own logo over the PH logo.
First, uniformity of appearance cannot be more important than allowing a party to give its best shot at winning the election.
In checkers, the pieces move in a uniformed pace and direction. Winning is achieved by coordinating and supporting the uniformed movement. In chess, the pieces do not move in a uniformed manner or direction. Winning is achieved by giving the pieces their full range of the board in accordance with their specific and unique movements.
Requiring PKR to use the PH logo in the post-GE14 and post-Sheraton-Move political environment is moving your pieces like checkers in a chess game. You are hobbling the full range of the pieces’ movements for the sake of keeping up the mere appearance of uniformity without dealing with substantive election issues.
Although each component party in PH is a multiracial political party, each has its own unique strength and weaknesses. PKR is a Malay-majority party; DAP is a non-Malay majority party; Amanah is based on Islamic principles.
The PH presidential council made two announcements. First, that PKR and Amanah are each to contest 20 seats and DAP will contest 16. Second, each component is free to choose either the PH logo or its own.
Obviously, the seats were allotted based on the respective party’s specific strengths and capabilities. Certain constituencies were not allotted to certain parties because the demographics and character of the electorate are not suitable for the party concerned. This is because not all constituencies are alike. There are urban and rural, non-Malay majority and Malay-majority areas, agricultural and industrial or commercial constituencies.
Each constituency requires different specific strengths and capabilities. To win the seats allotted, the component must leverage on its best resources and attributes suitable for the make-up of the electorate there.
In the continuing struggle to convert voters from electing an ethnonationalist government to choosing a multiracial one, it must be accepted that the day has not yet come for DAP to win in a Malay-majority rural constituency. It cannot also be denied that there is a resurgence in identity politics post-GE14.
Under these circumstances, PKR cannot expect to win in Malay-majority rural seats holding a logo that is alleged to represent a DAP-dominant PH. Thus, PKR should not be restricted in displaying its Malay-majority multiracial attributes. This is necessary to counter arguments and the internalised fear that the Malay race will perish without Umno, Bersatu or PAS. PKR must be given the latitude to show the full range of its strengths and capabilities to win the Malay-majority areas. This begins with PKR using its own logo.
Learning from failures
Second, PKR must be allowed to learn from its failures. In the post-mortem of the Melaka election, it was found that one of the causes for PKR’s disastrous results (there are many causes and weaknesses) were the problems arising from the use of the PH logo.
It must be realised that not every voter is well informed, especially in rural areas where there is low social media use and coverage on political developments. The feedback is that some voters thought PKR was not contesting because they could not find its logo on the ballot sheet.
Due to SOP-mandated restrictions, PKR was not able to successfully counter misinformation about the PH logo. The voters in the Malay-majority areas were told that the red in the PH logo represents DAP’s dominance in the coalition. The voters in the non-Malay majority areas were told that the red represents Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s return into PH.
This situation will be repeated in the Johor election. PKR must therefore use a different strategy to deal with this issue. This is by using its own logo.
PKR logo: essential political brand
Third, the PKR logo constitutes an essential part of its political brand. In GE14 and previous general elections, voters had a positive brand image and emotional attachment to the PKR logo. On the other hand, the PH logo has a negative brand image and represents negative emotional experiences.
Recent research by political scientists, scholars and marketing experts have found that voters learn about political parties and make voting decisions in the same way as they make decisions to buy products or services based on brand recognition and brand loyalty.
The party’s political brand, as with the relationship between commercial brands for products or services with its consumers, is established and nurtured through long periods of relationship between the party and the voters.
Brands are powerful symbols and have a complex system of meaning to the consumers and voters. Brands encompass associations, imagery, self expression and emotional benefits. The trust that the voters have in the party and “warm feelings” represented by the symbol cannot be established with a one-off transaction as would be the case in using the PH logo. More importantly, the emotional attachment or “brand loyalty” that the voter/customer has for an established brand cannot be immediately transferred to a new brand.
A new logo does not have the same associations in the memory of the voters to activate the motivation to vote for the new logo. According to the scholars’ research, a change of symbol will have an impact on the associative network of the voter’s attachment to the party’s political brand.
This is because it signifies a change in leadership, party direction or key policies. The change disrupts the established brand loyalty and brand equity. The change requires the party to rebuild the new brand with the voters, which takes time.
The political brand: a consumer perspective
Gareth Smith and Alan French from Loughborough University in an article titled The Political Brand: A Consumer Perspective explained the concept of the political brand in consumer memory.
Voter/consumer decision making is based on the cognitive psychology learning theory, and in particular, the associative network model of consumer memory and the emotional attachment of the consumer to the particular brand.
A brand is designed as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. Political parties and by extension their sign, symbol or logo act as brands to voters just as brand products do to consumers.
The logo is part of the voter/consumer memory. Voters attach meaning to party names and symbols. For the political brand, the electorate has a high level of recall by their symbols (the elephant, donkey, red rose and tree) of the political party’s names (republican, democrat, new labour, conservative) and their policies; conservative, liberal or labour.
Cognitive psychology learning theory and in particular the associative network model of consumer memory accepts that various associations about a particular object are held in a person’s memory.
Brand knowledge is made from individual pieces of information or nodes. The nodes are linked together in the memory to form a complex associative network about a political party. The authors gave the example of the information node on the Conservative Party would link the nodes associated with its leader David Cameron, which would link to other nodes on the Conservative Party’s policies. These may be recalled from memory when a node is stimulated from rest by a process known as activation.
The stimulation is the sight of the party symbol. The type of associations held by voters of the political brand will be the perceived benefits/drawbacks of the brand: its images and feelings towards it, experiences of the brand in action held in memory and accessible when stimulated from the memory of the voter.
Emotional marketing
A customer’s emotional connection to a name, symbol or design identifies and differentiates a product from other products. In an article titled Marketing Based on Emotions, examples are given of the emotional attachment to different brands. Apple is cited as the perfect example of a company that utilises emotions to create a connection with consumers and brand loyalty over time. Apple’s branding strategy uses simplicity, a clean design and most importantly a desire to become part of a lifestyle movement. This well-crafted desire appeals to our most basic emotional need: to be part of something bigger than ourselves. This is one of the reasons religious and social movements exists, why one is a Democrat or Republican.
Emotion in politics
In a paper titled Emotions in Politics, scholars reported their in research findings that emotional response is a primary supporting mechanism for memory. All political thinkers agree that it is necessary to understand emotion in order to explore human nature and their capacities for politics.
Emotion attaches to external events and symbols. For example, anger at the government arising from a surge of emotion from an imposition of a new tax leads to perceptions of government inefficiency and hostility to “bureaucrats.” Emotions enable people to remain true to their deeply held values and attitudes. On the other hand, emotions are capable of stirring people up, causing them to abandon habitual commitments.
There is a relationship between emotion and memory, a relationship between emotion and motivation, political judgment and electoral politics and the neuro science of emotion. Cognition is equated to thinking and is affected by feelings.
Researchers who studied symbols have identified the affective component of symbols as the key to persuade and motivate action. Neuro-imagery scans show that when consumers evaluate brands, they use their emotions, based on personal feelings and experiences, rather than information about the brand, such as features and facts. Without an emotional response, stimuli have no capacity to engage. The power of affective evaluations in predicting the vote is based on people’s emotional reactions to a wide range of political stimuli. This includes the logo.
PKR logo and brand image
Those who voted for PKR have a positive emotional attachment to the PKR logo. The PKR logo of the eye has an emotional attachment to its supporters in reminding them of the physical abuse suffered by Anwar and on reflection, their own sufferings.
Each voter has his or her own personal association with the party’s cause and struggles. The voter may have suffered from oppression and injustice. He or she may have attended street rallies, protests and demonstrations or decided to take a political stand with the party;
Those who voted for PKR in GE14 have a negative emotional experience with the PH logo. The PH logo has come to represent PH’s failures. Other than Anwar in Port Dickson, PH lost five consecutive by-elections using the PH logo, and most recently in the Melaka election.
The voters’ memory associates the PH logo with bad experiences:
– Mahathir not honouring the PH election manifesto
– Mahathir not honouring the agreement to pass the prime minister position to Anwar
– The defections by Bersatu and the betrayals of the PKR MPs in the Sheraton Move causing the collapse of the PH government
– Mahathir resigning as the seventh prime minister with the intention of forming a government without political parties with him as the eighth prime minister
To many, the PH logo is associated with Mahathir. PKR voters’ dislike for him generates the same emotions and anger against the coalition if the PH logo is used. The use of the PH logo gives rise to voters’ anger or disenchantment that PH has not learned from the mistakes made in Mahathir’s 22 months as prime minister.
PKR voters’ emotional attachment to the PKR logo and their emotional indifference to the PH logo will be critical in the motivation to vote or abstain from voting for PH in the constituencies contested by PKR.
PKR needs to switch tacks
One must remember winners don’t do different things. They do things differently. If PKR wants to win in Johor, it should be allowed to do things differently. Doing things differently is not disunity. Unity does not require uniformity. In Romans 14, it is written that holding different opinions and doing things differently is not disunity. In verse 13, the people are called upon as follows: “Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.”
I appeal to all parties to remove the stumbling blocks and give PKR the opportunity to give it its best shot in the Johor election. – The Vibes, January 29, 2022
William Leong Jee Keen is Selayang MP
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