What would it take to change our pro-government mainstream media practice? Perhaps, a second wave reformasi ? That theory crops up often in my speculative chats with friends. Last week’s election outcome, we hope, represents this second wave that will sweep through the mainstream media (MSM) newsroom.

The MSM’s traditional pro-government stance is often pinned on the argument that they necessarily need to be so. To do otherwise is to see the ministry cancel the paper’s annual printing licence. Which is a fair argument, but only to a point. To stretch it further is to say that the errand-type journalism we’ve lived with is the only practice suitable to the Malaysian socio-political setting. Well, that practice is certainly not so with the strident coverage by the online media.

To external observers, our MSM practice downrightly betrays the profession. Two e-mail alerts I received over the week seemed to say so. One was from the Toronto-based freedom watch International Freedom of Expression Exchange, which alluded to an election-related directive issued to staff at the Oriental Daily by its editor to focus on stories that support the Barisan Nasional to ensure its two-thirds majority victory.

The second was from Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Press Alliance (Seapa), which likewise explicitly criticised our media for its intimate affiliation with the government. To Malaysians, however, the Ifex and Seapa alerts are somewhat pass é .

As long as the MSM’s mediocre performance continues unchallenged by advertisers and the rakyat , we will continue to read the usual panoply of shallow socially and politically correct views in the local papers. Here’s where the online community, through their diverse discourse, is playing a significant role in generating the dynamic social engagement and critical discourse that observers believe have contributed to last week’s election outcome.

Here lies a stark reminder to the elected Opposition MPs – some of whom are political initiates with no clear track record – of why they were voted in. Which is to keep the government, and themselves honest, transparent and accountable to their constituents. Errant, arrogant politicians will certainly be publicised on the Internet, and will likely to be voted out in the next election.

Indeed, the remaining change agents able to mobilise public opinion for fundamental political reforms and a more democratic media environment are the emerging class of erudite bloggers, effusive social commentators and political pundits. Little hope lies in our MSM.

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To be fair, I wonder if we would see any critical, bold and strident MSM coverage of the pre-election period if the many anti-press laws were abolished? Would it let loose the true professional editors to lead and inspire their reporters to write on matters of substance and significance? I don’t think so. Not with the current cohort of managerial editors who were awarded public stature as a result of running the government’s errands and giving the government a false sense that all is well.

Imagine if those in high newspaper editorial positions were elected by the rakyat . Many would lose their deposits.

Radical changes in media practice are often catalysed by equally radical changes in the political environment. The open-door policy in China and the former Soviet Union led to fundamental changes in the country’s media contents and journalistic practice. It certainly led to a level of liberalisation, particularly in private commercial media to the extent that the party’s ideological line converged with a freer market’s bottom line.

In our case, the first wave reformasi in 1998 led to a class of chatters channelling their discontent to the online media. Strangely, the mainstream media managers seem oblivious to the online generation, contented to do just what they have been used to doing – increase the pages of classifieds, advertorials and consumer product supplements that are totally irrelevant to the rakyat ’s sense of well-being.

Foreign media read last week’s election results as a somewhat radical change from the past. The Sydney Morning Herald even editorialised (March 11) that ‘the surprising turnabout’ meant that the paper would now be paying more attention to Malaysian politics. ‘The Malay leadership’, SMH noted, ‘would be better off heeding the lessons of this election. This would mean trying to clean up the problems left by Dr Mahathir and his generation, including a compromised judiciary, a state business sector riven with corruption, stultifying control of the print and broadcast media, tame universities and a suspect electoral system. Malaysia might be a noisier place, but much stronger’.

To be fair, the ‘stultifying’ controls of the media by governments and businesses are neither peculiar to Malaysia nor alien to Australia. Political and economic forces have their own ways of protecting themselves from negative depictions by the media. The established order in any society will always try to dominate the media discourse to ensure their legitimacy and public image.

The fact is, some countries emphasise on informal restraints and suggestions by appeals to altruistic values, or at worst, through threats of expensive defamation suits, withholding of critical information, refusal to cooperate by long drawn out costly processing of Freedom of Information applications, and withdrawal of institutional advertising.

In Malaysia, however, interference in the media process comes in the form of editors’ willing affiliation with the government, direct phone calls to editors, outright clampdown on the media and cancellation of printing licences. Political interference in the media process in the ‘West’ is more understated than in Malaysia.

That said, journalists in the ‘West’ will fight to the core to defend their freedom and right to report truthfully for the public interest. On a positive note, we see this journalistic spirit emerging from our online journalists, media activists and bloggers. This augurs well for Malaysian online public journalism practice.

In constant flux

Sometimes in my quiet time, I wonder if the self-serving agenda among ardent bloggers and online media owners will soon come to dominate over the public service values of committed journalism? Challenging the established order when you’re part of an emerging order is a bit tricky. Online media and some blogsites – due to its audience reach and popularity - are fast becoming mainstreamed.

No longer considered as the ‘alternative media’ like it was during the 1998 reformasi , the day will come, if it has not already, when Malaysian online media agencies and advocacy groups will see a need to rely on established institutions to survive financially, thus losing their ‘independence’.

Perhaps not, if the experience of foreign ‘alternative online news sites’ such as The Real News Network and Global Voices Online are reliable models. They rely solely on donations and voluntary work from the true believers. Malaysian online community has its share of true believers.

Whether reformasi is better served by an independent adversarial media or a consensual-driven one is a matter of perspective. The fact is the media should never have to be ritually adversarial nor should it be habitually compliant. It’s fundamentally about doing what’s right by the rakyat , not the government, not the corporate owners.

Relationship between the media and government is naturally in constant flux - sometimes contentious, sometimes supportive. Dire consequences arise when the media – like our MSM - become singularly pro-government, anti-opposition and, I suppose, anti-journalism.

I can’t see otherwise when government-affiliated editorial managers continue to constrain their reporters’ enterprising work and, in the process, dampen their journalistic passion and creativity by institutionalising a newsroom culture that overtly spins and frames the editorial contents to support the government while diminishing the political significance of opposing voices.

Let’s see how the Malaysian online community – with their first-person reportage and commentaries – will be able to take us where the MSM are unable or rather unwilling to.