The peaceful demonstration against unfair elections in Kuala Lumpur organised by Bersih on Saturday, 10 Nov 2007 once again exposed the utter complicity and compliance of Malaysia’s mainstream media acting in line with the government's desire to demonise the 50,000 citizens who participated in the event.
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A packed press conference – followed by a virtual media blackout! It's a familiar story. Largely influenced by powerful political and corporate interests, the mainstream media appear to be blacking out any negative news relating to Patrick Lim's Penang Global City Centre project, which was launched by Prime Minister on 12 September.
In what appears to be a subdued celebration — in contrast to the recent 50th Merdeka bash — of the 44th anniversary of the formation of Malaysia, the New Sunday Times (16 Sept 2007) splashed a front page headline, 'Bonds of Unity', the full story of which was carried inside on pages 6 and 7. It featured an interview with Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Maximus Ongkili, the guy who's in charge of national unity and integration.
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The Star saw a change at the helm in recent weeks. But are things changing so that the self-styled “people’s paper” will really live up to its name of serving the rakyat as opposed to being a mouthpiece for the BN government and BN-supported corporate world as it has been all these years?
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Today's Star splashed a story about the head-hunting spree of both MCA and Umno of Terengganu. MCA Youth offered RM3,000 while Umno Youth came up with RM5,000 to person(s) who can help in the arrest – and consequent punishment – of the so-called 'flag-burner'. The 'people's paper' also carried mugshots of nine people who, according to the police, can help in their investigation of the recent 'riot' in Batu Burok in Terengganu.
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Here we go again–the issue of government-media partnership being discussed at the yearly Langkawi International Dialogue (LID), where journalists were quizzed by governmental leaders from Africa and Malaysia. A Bernama report that was published in NST and The Star (6 Aug 2007) mentioned how Rehman Rashid of the NST and Michael Aeria of The Star (among other journalists from outside Malaysia) got a taste of their own medicine when they were asked some “tough” questions by political leaders.
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What is “neutrality” or political non-partisanship? Going by The Star’s report (1 Aug 2007) on Jeff Ooi’s move from Gerakan to the DAP, “neutrality”, according to our mainstream journalists, means only one thing: support for the BN and all its component parties.
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So the Star has gone “green” to mark World Environment Day on 5 June. But beneath this superficial green facade, the contradictions faced by the paper, which is very much part of the corporate media, soon become obvious to the discerning reader.
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Like many of their dutiful journalists in the mainstream media, some government ministers have shown through their recent antics and expressions that this is indeed the season to be silly. They display a kind of behaviour and thinking that can easily earn not only a name in Malaysia's Book of Records but also the gleeful attention of the rest of the world.
It’s a sign of the times when political leaders, government functionaries and, lo and behold, certain journalists consciously blur the line between the ethical and the unethical, the legal and the illegal, in a desperate attempt to win the hearts and minds of voters in the run-up to the Ijok by-election.
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