Questions to no where

The race for the leader of Pergerakan Ketua Pemuda, is between 3 people. They are Muhriz Mahathir, Khir Toyo and Khairi Jamaludin. The leading contender is Mukhriz Mahathir. He is the son of the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir. He is a graduate from America. He has a business in the manufacture of fibre optics located in Petaling Jaya.

Khir Toyo, the second leader In terms of nominations, is a former Menteri Besar of Selangor. He is trained as a dentist. He graduated from the University of Malaya.

Khairy Jamaluddin is the present Deputy Youth leader. He has some business interests which are not entirely clear. He has been accused of being the richest jobless graduate. He is a graduate from Oxford University.

Sakmongkol believes that all the three contestants have been interviewed. Either by television or by news papers. Through these interviews, we are able to size and measure the quality of the contestants to some extent.

The key word is, to some extent. We shouldn’t place too high a premium on these interviews. Most of the interviews seemed to be tailor made. The interviewer asked leading questions. Leading questions are designed to lead the interviewees giving answers that are dovetailed to fit nicely into pre arranged conclusions. A leading question is a question that suggests the answer or contains the information the examiner is looking for.

Experimental research by psychologists have established that trying to answer leading questions can create false memories in eyewitnesses. For example, participants in an experiment may all view the same videoclip of a car crash. Participants are assigned at random in one of two groups. The participants in the first group are asked "How fast was the car moving when it passed by the Stop sign?" The participants in the other group are asked a similar question that refers to no Stop sign. Later, the participants from the first group are more likely to remember seeing a Stop sign in the videoclip, even though there was no Stop sign present in the video. We get different answers just by introducing the element of a stop sign. Such findings have been replicated and raise serious questions about the validity of information elicited through leading questions during eyewitness testimony.

One of the contenders have asked for a forum where all contestants debate on certain issues. This idea has been shot down. Many people are against this idea. It included the present youth head. All in all, they say, the Pemuda is not ready for a debate style forum. More harm can be done than good. Unfortunately we are not told of what kind of harm.

So, because the idea of debates is not accepted and interviews are not conclusive, how can we assess the capabilities of our future leaders?

Sakmongkol would like the contestants write on one particular topic which the contestants think is relevant to the UMNO youth, UMNO and the nation today. From what a person writes, we can judge his thinking and clarity of thought process. Will the contestants take up the challenge?