When my editor Harmandar asked me in early March, if I could do an undercover stunt to see how the media would respond to a clown giving out a strong statement. I said, “I will do it.”
The preparation started two weeks before the Umno Assembly with the application of the passes for me and the photographer.
On the first day of the Assembly (March 23, 2009), photographer McCain and I surveyed Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) for two hours in the morning walking through the steps we would take from the entrance to the media centre. PWTC was crowded in the morning and we studied every step and move we would take in the afternoon.
After returning to the MARKETING magazine office in Taman Tun and writing the statement, Ham printed 50 copies and we were off to meet our professional clown friend to dress me up as a clown. I remember Ham’s words vividly.
Laughingly, he told both of us, “Good luck and I hope I do not have to come to the police station to bail you both out.”
“Have fun and enjoy what you are doing,” he lifted our spirits up. Stanley Selvakumar, a professional clown while doing my make up again warned me, “Be careful and I do not want to see the headlines tomorrow that you are arrested.”
It is for this reason, I never share my undercover assignments (as a blindman, security guard, handicapped on a wheelchair, salesman etc) with anyone in my family.
Because, once before my wife was shocked to find out that I had gone around KL as a beggar. Two years ago, when I walked into the dining hall of my house, my wife was crying holding The Sunday Star newspaper in her hand. When I asked her why she was crying?
She said: “Why do you have to beg the streets when you are a journalist?” I explained to her that it was an undercover stunt to study the behavior of the public and how generous they would be to a beggar. If I had told her I was going to be clown at PWTC, she may have cried again and passed more negative comments. Well! Against all odds, McCain drove me to PWTC and we parked our car almost half a mile away from PWTC, near Ipoh Road and walked.
As we entered PWTC at 4pm, I smiling gestured some clownish movements. Just to note, about 20 people during the one hour we were there asked me to make balloons. I told them I would get it for them later. Bravely, I walked into the media centre on the third floor and there were more than 30 journalists, my friends, inside and outside the room who could not recognise me. As I left the room distributing the press statement, a voice cried out “Krishnamoorthy” after she had read my name signing off as a freelance writer in the second page of the press statement. Turning my back, I smiled at her and noticed two PWTC security officials dressed in full suit with a policeman watching me distribute the statements.
As they were about to approach me for questioning, I fled out and went to the ground floor and mingled with the crowd who again asked me for balloons. After about 30 minutes, I picked up some more courage and went up to the fourth floor on the escalator where the press was waiting for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to arrive.
Here again, I distributed my press statement to another 20 reporters who were standing outside the press conference room. The place was heavily guarded by policemen and when I saw a policeman coming in my direction, I soon signaled to McCain and we fled, for the second time.
In fact, it would be nice to be escorted by the police to leave PWTC, but the danger was in them arresting me for questioning when I was only exercising a citizen’s right in our democratic country.
I believe it is my right to stop gossiping and say as an individual: “STOP CLOWNING (POLITICKING) AND GET WITH THE TASK OF MANAGING THE COUNTRY.” To demonstrate my message, I dressed up as a clown.
Checking through the newspapers, the next day, no newspapers carried the statement. So, I congratulated Ham, “Bro, MARKETING magazine has got the scoop.”
I received feedback on the statement when two reporters called me as my mobile was in the statement. A leading English newspaper reporter filed the story from PWTC, but it was not used the next day. Perhaps, a Government directive, no more editorial space or “let’s not get Krishna into trouble.” There could be umpteen reasons why the press statement was not used when the 50 copies were handed personally to television and newspaper reporters of all the vernacular papers.
For CEOs and public relations executives who send their press statements to the media, learn a lesson in media relations. The media is not waiting to publish your statement and they may have their reasons not to publish it.