AUGUST 6 — “The ensemble may behave in ways not predicted by its components. A small minority, say 3-4 per cent of the total population, can cause the entire population to submit to their preferences.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Do you remember that time there were about 10 or 20 of you going out for dinner, and you had to figure out where to go?

However, the fact that two or three of your friends couldn’t eat a certain kind of food (be it beef or pork or whatever) meant that your entire group needed to go to a restaurant which met the requirements of those few people.

So, because two or three can’t take beef, but the 17 or 18 other people can take chicken, the whole group will go for chicken. That’s the minority rule.

This rule is also the reason why a family of five will watch a particular movie even though, say, three of its members may not like the show. But if Daddy wants to watch Mission Impossible then too bad, all of us are going.

More seriously, this minority rule is the reason why, even if 90 per cent of illegal immigrants are innocent people simply looking for a new home, you still need tough border policies.

Just 1 per cent out of 100,000 immigrants will translate to letting in a thousand “bad guys” who will only add to society’s havoc. This is the ultimate fallacy of the reasoning behind “open border” policies i.e. nobody denies that most asylum seekers and refugees are good people, it’s that small percentage of criminals which a government has the responsibility of ensuring do not enter the country (and which results in all that bureaucracy and tough immigration penalties).

In the Malaysian educational context, consider the concerns many colleges and universities have about Nigerian students.

There is no question that many of them are hard-working students trying to get a degree.

However, a sufficient number of them (at least a few years ago) began creating numerous social problems which led to the term “Nigerian student” becoming an ominous term. Worse, some institutions even began refusing students from Africa. Period.

Likewise, all those annoying airport screening procedures target the 0.01 per cent of the travelling population who may be thinking of hijacking or bombing a plane. The rest of us suffer simply because of this dangerous minority.

In the corporate world, assume there are 12 executives debating over a certain proposal, odds are the two or three more “stubborn” or persistent members will get their way and have their proposals approved.

The point is, unless the majority actively challenges this strong minority, it will be the latter’s will which hold sway.

This is why I think the first thing which all new CEOs in any company has to do is to identify that small group of influential people (not necessarily the highest ranked) who effectively sways everybody else (for better or for worse).

If this group can’t be brought in line, then a swamp-draining may need to happen.

The minority rule in Malaysian politics

The minority rule has a serious impact on culture and office life. Now, throw in the fact that in Asian culture people don’t challenge the bosses very much, and you can see why Umno could have such a powerful stronghold on Malaysia for so long — it only needed a small elite to push policies and institutions in a certain direction.

Till now, it is not clear who or what the factions are within Umno which contributed towards voting the party out; we may never know.

The point, though, is that taking down an unyielding minority takes time and even then the key protagonists may choose to remain behind the scenes.

Speaking of Malaysia, one can’t but conclude that the controversy over child marriage laws hangs precisely on the minority rule.

There is a small group of people for whom child marriage is acceptable, and the entire nation can’t brush them aside.

This is the same group of people who will make a big hue and cry over the uniforms worn by air stewardesses, who continually harbour suspicions of the “Christianisation” of Malaysia, who are paranoid over the loss of their ethnicity’s status and “supremacy”, etc.

See? Malaysia does seem to be in the grip of a minority who, unfortunately, often claims to speak for the majority in their groups.

There is both good news and bad news in this matter. Optimistically, these groups in question are in the minority and most people are against them. Worryingly, this group of hardliners are among the most stubborn in the country.

And the only way to defeat stubborn people is to be more stubborn… much more stubborn.

You don’t get a Chamberlain to defeat a Hitler; neither do you rely on an Obama to defeat an ISIS.

Go figure.

This is the personal opinion of the columnist.