aIIil

I

SYed Arabi ldid

SItltlI.HRSHIPIN

Editors

Faridah IbrahimChang Peng Kee

Media and Democrary Research GrouP

(Politics and Security Research Niche)

@ Copyrlght to Media aad Democrary Research Group, IJKM,2014

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CHAPTERiI: ISSUES,CHALLENGESANDOPPURTUNITIES

IN PUBLIC RELATIONS

CHAPTER 12: PUBLIC RELATIONS IN MANAGEMENT:

OPPURTUNITI ES, PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

CHAPTER 13: CURRICULUM PLANNING FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

PART 4Public Opinion, Politics and Elections

CHAPTER 14: THE MALAYSIAN ELECTIONS OF 2013:

LESSONS FROM THE PAST

CHAPTER 15: WHAI AND WHO: MARCHING UP THE WHYIN THE COMINC ELECTIONS

CHAPTER 16: POLITICAL PUBLIC OPINION STUDIES INMALAYSIA

CHAPTER 17 THE YOUNG MALAYSIAN VOTERS

CHAPTER 18: THE ROLE OF BLOGS IN AN EMERGING SOCIETY:

A STUDY OF A MALAYSIAN BY-ELECTIONS

CHAPTER 19: ./ITIzuBUTES OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES:

PERSPECTIVES YOUTHCHAPTER20: IvIALAYSIAN ELECTIONS 1999

Penr 5Media and Youth

CHAPTER2l: yZ FACTORS INFLUENCING MALAYSIAN YOUTHFI RST IDENTITY DISCLOSURE

CHAPTER22: PUBLIC SECTORCOMMUNICATION INTHE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE

APPENDIX 1 : COMMITTEE MEMBERS OF SYED AMBI IDIDSPECIAL PROIECT

169-174

775-1.86

787-198

799-210

211-224

22s-234

235-256

257-278

279-294

295-312

313-332

'

333-356

357-358

::-:.:li;$i.. :::;

. a,a

CHAPTER T9ATTzuBUTES OF POLITICAL CAN DIDAItrS:

PERSPECTIVES OF YOUTH

NTRODUCTION

leader can be found in social sysrems that include family, sociery organization,

iountry and etc, In Islam, even among a group of travelers (a minimum of three

people), Prophet Muhammad has encouraged t}rem to select one Person among

them as a leader. Jhese indicated that having a leader is necessary because the

systems or a group of travelers could be managed properly. In doing so, what

important is to have an ef[ective leader. An effecdve leader is a part of other

people, normally called group members of team members. Research has suggested

that effective leadership is largely a function of either the traits possessed by

individuals, or the pafterns of behaviour they demonstrate (Geier, 1969; Bass,

1990).

This chapter rries to find out the attributes of political candidates that

are looked upon byyouth in making their decision during election process. Youth

votes count. So, the objectives of this study are to find out (1) the proportion

of youth who voted for candidate as compared to parry affiliation, issues that

are raised, and others; (2) perceived important attributes ofpolitical candidates,

and (3) the amibutes of politicai candidates that are decisively infuencing voting

preference among youth.

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SCHOLARSHI P IN TRANSFORMAIION

TITERATURI REVIEW

The leaders emerged from different ways. It depends on how we look at theprocesses of leadership formation. Two approaches to looking at leaders "r. fro*

the attributes ofthe person and from the behavioral aspecr.There are many leadership theories that herp exprain the rypes of readers

and leadership styles. For example, A Great person Theory pori..a that greatleaders possess key traits that set them apart from most oth., hrrm.n b.ing.Although not all studies confirmed what have been theorized, Kirkpatrick andLocke (I99r) after reviewing a rarge number of studies confirmed th.'th.ory th.,certain *aits, together with other factors, are the elements that make them special.According ro them, leaders do nor have to be great men or women by beingintellet:rual geniuses or omniscient prophet ro succeed, but they do need to havethe rigirt unique traits that are essential for being leaders. The characteristics ofsuccessfirl leaders include drive; honesty and integriry; leadership motivation; self_confident; cognitive abiliry; knowledge of the business; *eativity and flexibiliry.

Unlike the trait approach, an effective leader accord-ing to the behaviorapproach is explained by leadership styles: (1) autocradc versus participativeleadership behavior and (2) person-oriented. versus production orienued leaders.Autocratic sryle is the extent to which readers permit subordinates to take partin decisions while participarive sryle is the extent to which leaders direct theactivities of subordinates and tell them how ro carry out their jobs. According toMuczyk and Reimann (r987) none of the sryres of leadership (directive democrat,direcdve autocrar' permissive democrat, and permissive autocrat). is best under ailconditions and in all situations. Thus, siruational leadership theorywas developed.

A leader needs to adopt styre that match with the needs of organizarionin producing effective leadership. Another leadership behavior th"t d.rior,rt rt.,a person as an effective leader is when the leader concerns with both productionand people in the organization (Greenberg & Baron, 1995). Although thetwo dimensions are largely independent that a leader may be high on .orr..rnwith people but low on concern with production, considering borh people andproduction dimensions in leadership behavior have positive consequences onwork-related atdtudes and productiviry of the organization.

Jhe trait and behavioral approaches provide some theorericalbackground on effective leadership according ro wesrern perspective. 'wesrern

theorists also came up with tle concept of emergent leader based on popurarity

280

ATTzuBUTES OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES

concerned, where nerworking and linkages place an important role

to being known. In political scenario, this rype of leadership tends

In Islam, the concern is more on the role as a leader. All mankind are

ro serve Allah and one of the responsibilities is to be a Khalifah on this

As human beings are given amanah to carry out the responsibilities to

on this earth, this suggests that everybody is created by Allah with

ncy to be a leader. Another uniqueness of leadership in Islam is the

of accountabiliry. Leaders are provided with divine guidance how to be a

Ieader in the family, sociery, organization, and country' Those leaders

trom shariah (Islamic Law) and bring followers away from the right

be punished in hereafter. Thus, effective leadership in carrying the task

fundamental objectives of the group is essential in order to manage the

running of the grouP.

Malaysia is an Islamic counrry pracricing both Islamic law and civil

Many wouid like the leaders to have good attributes. This is because no

encourages unethical behavior on *re part ofthe leaders' So, a study was

to elucidate the preferred rypes of leaders by youth.

HODOLOGY

study made use of survey research design method. Data were collected using

iew schedule. It was conducted from 2 - 5 October 2007. A small number

residents were chosen ro represenr the youth population in each location.

face interviews were conducted with the youth of Parliament and DUN

ions. Respondents took around 30 to 40 minutes to answer the questions.

respondents were selected based on rhe strata given to the enumerators. A total

978 respondenrs were randomly selected, stratified using race and gender, from

states, namely, Penang (Kepala Batas and Bukit Bendera), Kelantan (Kota

and Machang), Selangor (Gombak and Serdang), and Kuala Lumpur' The

were analyzed using sPSS\rIN 12.0. Descriptive and inferential statistics

used for the study. For descriptive statistics, frequenry, Percentage, mean

standard deviation were used while for inferential statistics, one-sample t-test,

t t-test, and discriminant analysis were used. Factor analysis and

iliry test were also used for exploring the items used for the srudy'

28t

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SCHOLARSHIP IN TRANSFORMATION

Reliability Test and Factor A-nalysis

Thble I presenrs the reliabiliry resr for rhe 20 items used in determining importaamibutes of political candidates that are suitable for national le"d.rrhcharacteristics considered for dris sudy. Resulm reveal that two factors emergewhere Fl consisrs of 12 items and F2 comprised of 8 items. Factor I is labeledPersonaliry Attributes while Factor 2 is labeled as Demographic characteristirFactor t has an Eigen value of 5.872 with Percentage of variance Explained fi29.357 and its Alpha Cronbach value of 0.8962. Factor 2, on the other hanhas an Eigen Yalse of 3.269 with Percentage of variance for 16.343 and AlplCronbach vilue of 0.777. Both Factors are distinct and onhogonal in nature arthe irems fall under each factor are reliable measures of the factor concerned. Iritems were deleted for the srudy.

Thble I : Mean, Standard Deviation and Factor Loadings of Amibutes of poliric

Candidates

No.

A

tHffiXt | ,*" rrrl I Fl I ., I co--ooaity

Personality Attributes (Fl )

I Friendly 3.31 (0.70) 0.442 0.300 0.483

2 Keep to promises 3.58 (0.56) 0.668 0.r94 0.480

3Able to voice outopinion diligendy

3.56 (0.56) 0.670 0.175 0.489

4 Liked by people 3.55 (0.54) 0.678 0.173 0.540

5Have a lot of usefirlideas

3.62 (0.5r) 0.730 0.083 0.495

6vrsronary/tar-

"i-L.-l3.64 (0.51) 0.703 0.031 0.555

7 Fair 3.65 (0.49) 0.745 0.016 0.481

8 J*t 3.58 (0.51) 0.691 0.061 0.510

9 Credible 3.63 {0.51) 0.712 0.055 0.475

10 Mature 3.60 (0.53) 0.684 0.084 0.475

282

ATTR]BUTES OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES

Demographic Characteristics (F2)

0.228

0.660

0.63i

0.516

0.456

0.404

0.274

Alpha Cronbach 0.896 0.777

Characteristics of the Respondents

y more than half of the respondents are male (5l.4oto1while the rest(45.6o/o)

female (Thble 2). The respondents consist of mainly Malay (52.8o/o), followed

Chinese (4l.5Vo) and In&an (5.lVo). The proportion of the overall youth

as their age increases. The respondents comprise of an almost equal

belonging to single (48 .3o/o) and married yo uth (51 .7o/o) . More than one-

ofthe respondents (39.80/o) were educatedwith STPM/HSC. More than half

the respondenrs (53.9o/o) are Muslim. Almost hdf of the respondenrc (49.7o/o)

to the RM500-RM2000 income bracket. Almost half of the respondents

.7o/o) corne from family having income between RM2000-RM4000 income

283

SCHOLARSH I P IN TMNS FORMATION

Thble 2: Demographic Characteristics

No. Characteristics Frequency Percentage

!

GendenMaleFemale

Total

522456y78

53.446.6

100.0

2

Race:

MalayChineseIndianTotal

516406

56978

52.8

4t.55.7

100.0

3

Ag" (y'),21-2526-303t-353640liotal

299291220168

978

30.629.822.517.2[00.0

4

Status:

SingleMarriedTotat

455487

9a

48.3

51.7100.0

5

Highest Education:UPSR/Primary 6

PMR/SRP/LCESPM/SCSTP/HSCCertificate (Polytechnic/etc)

DiplomaDegreeTotal

L7

62

387

55

105

184r62972

1.7

6.4

39.8

10.8

18.9t6.7

100.0

Religion:Islam

ChristianBuddhistHinduO*rersTotal

527122)5)6710

978

Individual Monthly lncome:No IncomeRMl-500RM501-1000RM1001-2000RM2001-3000RM3001 and more

Total

ATTRIBUTES OF POLITICAL CANDIDAIES

Family Monthly Income:Less than RM1000RlvI1000-2000RM2001-3000RM3001-4000RM4001-5000RM5000 & moreTotal

80160', <-7

)14

119

126965

53.9t2.525.86.9

1.0

100.0

t7.24.717.729.320.410.8

100.0

8.316.626.623.1

t2.313.1

100.0

Election Status of Youth

Thble 3 presents youth elecdon starus. More than three-quarters of the respondents

are registered vorcts (77.9o/o). Those who are not registered yet claimed that they

are busy (27.9o/o and not interested in politics (12.4o/o). However, they claimed

that they intend to register (65.20/o). From the 768 registered voters,72.7o/ofua{,

gone for election at least once (39 .60/o). More than one quarter of the respondentC'

(27.0o/o) has yet to go for election. Almost two-thirds of the respondents (61.87o)

afe not interested in politics. -:..,

285

-:.:!ai:i::r':t

SCHOI-A.RSHIP IN TRANSFORMATION

Thble 3: Youth Election Satus

No Election Status Percentage TotA

768210

j126

6

46

2

8

t218

92

zto

RegisteredVotenYes

NoTotal

77.922.1

100.0

2

Reason for not registering:No interest

\Tasting timeNo dme to register/busy

No change

Lazy

Never go for dectionOthersNo response

Total

12.42.921.9

1.0

3.85.78.6

43.8100.0

3

Had gone for election:Yes

NoTot l

72.727.3

100.0

5582i0768

4

Intend to regigtenYes

NoTotal

65.2

34.8100.0

r37/)

2ro

5

No. of times gone for election:0

1

,3

45

Total

27.039.6r6.712.0

4.60.3

100.o

207

304128c)?

35

2

768

ATTRIBUTES OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES

Intercsted in Politics:

Yes

NoTotal

38.261.8

100.0

374632

978

in deciding.whar to base on for their voting decision. It is found that almost

third of .li. ,.rpo.rd.nrs would vote based on candidate afiributes. Almost

of the respondents (46.50lo) would vote for parry regardless who the candidate

INGS OF THE STUDY

ofthestudyarePresentedaccordingtotheobjectivesofthestudy.

InfuencingVoting

major factors do infuence voting during a national primary election' Table

,1, ,h"t one-third of the respondents feel that candidate plays an important

il. almost rwo-fifths of them would prefer to vote based on issue raised

ng campaign Period.

Table 4: Factors Infuencing Vodng

Factors Influencing Voting Frequency Percentage

Prtry

Candidate

Issue

Others

Totel

455

323

175

25

978

46.5

33.0

17.9

2.6

100.0

Perceived Important Attributes of Political Candidates

In most cases, rhe chosen poiitical candidates will become national leaders' There

are important characteristics of the leaders that are aspired by youth to rule the

,r*tiorr. As such 20 aaributes of leaders are posed to the youth to rate in terms of

their importance to them from 1 as 'not very impo nanl ' 2 as 'not important" 3 as

,i::..t:iir

287

SCHOLARSHI P IN TRANSFORMATION

'important' and 4 as very importaat'. Thble 5 presents the results whereby certain

afiribures are found to be important to the youth. It is found all the personaliry

amributes are perceived to be important for political candidates who in turn will be

leaders, once they are chosen by the people to represent tieir constituency. Such

afiributes, according to perceived importance, are ethical and morally sound, fair,

trustwortly, visionary/far-sighted, credible, have a lot of usefirl ideas, just/6rm,

marure, keep to their promises, liked by people, can voice opinion diligently, and

friendly.

The rwo demographic characteristics of the political candidates that are

thought to be important by the respondents are highly educated and religious.

O*rer attributes are perceived as not imponant (Thble 5):

Thble 5: Perceived Important Attributes of Political Candidates

No.

A

Attributes of I Mean I Overall

Candidates I fSot lP"r."ot"rtx df

P

Personality Attributes

I Friendly 3.31(0.70) 82.75 13.u5 953 0.000

2 Keep to promises 3.58 (0.56) 89.50 31.406 953 0.000

3Able to voice outopinion diligendy

3.56 @.56) 89.00 30.784 953 0.000

4 Liked by people 3.55 0.54) 88.75 30.980 953 0.000

) Have a lot of usefi.rl

ideas3.62 (0.5t) 90.50 36.539 953 0.000

6Visionary/far-

sishted3.64 (0.51) 91.00 38.1 58 953 0.000

7 Fair 3.65 (0.49) 9r.25 40.959 953 0.000

8 Just/firm 3.58 (0.51) 89.50 34.600 953 0.000

9 Credible 3.63 (0.51) 90.75 37.811 953 0.000

10 Mature 3.60 (0.53) 90.00 34.598 953 0.000

1lEthical and morally

sound3.67 (0.4e) 9t.75 42.092 954 0.000

288

-t

::t-i

ATTRIBUTES OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES

Demographic Characteristics

Religious I Z.zl 1o.aq | 82.25 10.i71 I 953On a 4 point scale, where 1= not very imporrant, 2=nor important,

3=important, 4=very important*Test value=3.0

Thble 6: Independent r-resr berween candidates and others in terms ofAttributes of Political Candidares

Attributes ofCandidates

Personality

289

0.078

r5.93t

2.47 (0.92)

2.48 (1.00)

Same gender as you

2.65 (0.9r) -11.614

Able to voice outopinion diligendy

.

SCHOLARS HIP IN TRANS FORMATION

290

4 Liked by peopleI0

312

642

3.49

3.58

0.60

0.52-2.268 952 0.024

5Have a lot of usefi-rl

ideas

1

0

312

642

3.58

3.63

0.53

0.51t.457 952 0.145

6Visionary/far-sighted

1

0

312

642

3.63

3.64

0.51

0.52-0.069 952 0.94

7 FairI0

312

642

3.66

3.65

0.49

0.500.409 952 0.6s:

8 Just/firm1

0

312

642

3.59

3.58

0.51

0.520.154 952 0.871

9 Credible1

0

312

642

3.64

3.62

0.r l0.52

0.462 952 0.64.

l0 MatureI0

312

642

3.6t

3.59

0.54

0.530.507 952 0.61

t1Ethiel and morallysound

1

0

312

643

3.69

3.66

0.49

0.500.875 953 0.38

L2 Tiusmorthy1

0

312

642

3.65

3.67

0.55

0.53-0.559 952 0.57t

B Denographic Characteristics

t3 Highly educatedI0

312643

3.353.43

0.810.76

t.431 953 0.15

L4 High incomeI0

312643

2.642.71

0.900.86

t.136 953 0.25

L5 Same race as you1

031264r

2.48

2.46

0.990.90

0.345 951 0.73

r6 Same religion as youI0

3t2642

2.462.49

1.090.97

-0.466 952 0.64

t7 Same gender as youI0

31064r

2.132.02

0.890.77

1.878 949 0.06

l8 Same politicalideolog;r as you

1

03t264r

2.572.69

1.000.89

1.964 951 0.05

ATTzuBUTES OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES

0.852

311 | 3.23 10.94 -r.250 o<, o.2tl643 13.3t 10.83

*l =Candidate, 0=Others

Furdrer analysis reveals that only 55.2o/o of the attributes are able to

classified according to whether the respondents would vote for candidates or

However, based on Table 7, the discriminating factors for deciding to vote

candidates are according to the following atuibutes, nameiy, liked by people,

ideology, friendly, same gender, keep to promises, have a lot of useful ideas,

to voice out opinion diligendy, and highly educated. There is a mixture ofnaliry attributes as well as demographic characteristics of the candidates that

be used in predicting the winning candidates.

TableT: Structure Matrix for Discriminant Analysis berween

Candidates and Others in terms of Attributes of Political Candidates

No. Attributes of Candidates Function I

I Liked bv people -0.403

, Same political ideologf -0.346

Friendly -0.327

4 Same gender as you* 0.326

5 Keeo to oromises -0.308

6 Have a lot of usefirl ideas -0.279

7 Able to voice out opinion diligendy -0.258

8 Highly educated* -0.248

9 Religious* -0.226

10 Have hieh income+ -0.1 91

1l Ethical and morally sound 0.139

t2 Tiustworrhy -0.10i

t3 Marure 0.081

t4 Sa-me religion as you* -0.072

291

SCHOLARSHIP IN TRANSFORMATION

15 Fair 0.06,t6 Same race as you* 0.056

17 Credibie 0.050

18 Visio nary/far-si ghted -0.033

19 Same state as you* -0.0t7

20 Just/firm 0.005* Demographic characteristia (F2)

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings of the srudy, it can be concluded thar even though almosthalf of the youth would vote for parry, one-t},ird of them would also consider

candidate as an imporrant considerarion when selecdng a political candidate, whoin turn would be national leader if he/she won the election for his/her consdtuency.

Therefore, party and candidate play an important role in the nomination ofcandidate for each constituency.

Perceived impotanr amributes of political candidates preferred by youthare more-towards personality amributes t.han of demographic characteristics. Allthe personaliry items are considered important by the youth for the candidates

to possess. Such amributes are in line with leader attributes of the Tiaits Theory

and the Greaf Person Theory. Therefore, the candidate should be friendly, keep

to promises made, able ro voice out opinion diligendy, liked by people, have a

lot of usefirl ideas, visionary/fu-sighted, fair, just/firm, credible, marure, ethical

and morally sound, and trusnvorthy. The candidate is of an advantage if he/she is

highly educated and religious, too.

The differentiating factor berween those who would vote for candidate

than those who would vote for parry and issues is gender. The former would prefer

caadidate who is similar to him/her, that is, male youth would vote for male

candidate while female youth would vote for female candidate. In addirion, those

youth who would vote for parry ald issues would also take into consideration

political candidates who are friendly, keep to promises, able to voice out opiniondiligendy, have a lot of useful ideas, liked by people, highly educated, and have

the same ideology ro rhem.

292

ATTRIBUTES OF POLITTCAL CANDIDATES

(1990). Bass and Stogditti handbooh of hadership, 3'd ed' New York:

Press.

(196il. A trait approach to the study of leadership in small group'

ral of Communication, 17 , 376'323.

J. & Baron, R.A. (1995)' Behauiour in Organizatioz' Prentice Hall'

Cliffs, NewJersey.

i.[. S.A. & Locke, E. A. (1991). Leadership: Do traits matter? Aca*my

'of Managrmert Executiue, 5, 48-50' -

., l.P & Reimann, B.C. (1987). The case for directive leadership' Acadcmy

Management Reuiew, 12, 637 -647 .

r jointly u.tritten with ,4ssoc. Prof Dn Saodah \Yoh hnd Prof Dr' Abdul'Moan , II{JM. Presented at 7th Biennial Conference of the Pacifc and

' communication Association (PACA 2009) : communication Encounters

Grhures. Organized by: Department of Comrrutnication, Facuby of

Languages and Comm'unication, (Jniuersiti Pu*a Makysia ' 10-12

2009

293