I live outside Malaysia. A few nights ago, my wife and I stayed up to watch a number of video clips on various websites showing the arrests of various Malaysian opposition figures as well as a writer who sang the Negaraku and held up the Federal Constitution before being led away by the police.
After watching these, we telephoned a relative in the Klang Valley. It didn’t come as a big surprise that the ugly incidents of the past two days have gone largely unnoticed by this relative. I believe that apart from the relatively small number of those interested in such matters, most Malaysians would have been oblivious of this development.
Where are the journalists?
Malaysia has, for a long time now, slid in many ways. The recent events serve only as reminders that the decline has become critical and untenable. As a lawyer, I have been disillusioned with the Malaysian legal administration system of the past 20 years. I thought the 1988 Salleh Abas episode was as low as the Malaysian judiciary can go. Yet now we have the Lingam-Fairuz scandal.
The government has not demonstrated any serious intentions to fix this. It feels as though the steps have been taken reluctantly with the objective of getting critics off its back instead of attempting to restore judicial integrity and quality. This is a serious and fundamental flaw yet most ordinary Malaysians are oblivious to this problem.
Where are the journalists?
The electoral system has been fraught with problems for as long as I have participated in elections. I lived in an established area of the Klang Valley and had not moved for a long period of time. And yet I found myself “voting” in a different constituency after an election. With gerrymandering, postal vote manipulations, party workers conduct on polling day, media bias and various other horrendous practices, the Election Commission requires a serious overhaul.
The man at the helm of the commission who has been responsible for allowing these malpractice to persist continues to hold on to that role. Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman should have been gone a long time ago but his tenure has been extended. Objections to this have been met with high-handed responses from the authorities. The lack of objectivity on the part of the police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the judiciary persists but man on the street is oblivious to this serious flaw.
Where are the journalists?
For a long time, the Indians have been receiving a very raw deal. Many of them are labourers with paltry incomes that are no match to the escalating costs of living in Malaysia’s badly-managed economy. If they try to seek alternative or additional incomes by setting up hawker stalls, for example, they face problems with the local council. Petty traders are met with racist and religious bigots who give minority races a tough time. Bribery, unfair treatment and unreasonable terms all conspire to make it next to impossible for these disadvantaged groups.
Religion, their sole comfort in life, is given a literal bashing when their temples or shrines are demolished with little or no compassion. Can one expect a community to undergo incessant oppression and not react? Do they not deserve a more compassionate review of their situation? Few speak up or represent them. Those who do are thrown into jails without trial (eulogised as detention centers, call it what you will, Kamunting is a jail). Surely this is a matter of serious public concern requiring objective dissecting of all relevant issues.
Where are the journalists?
There are other equally serious issues in Malaysia including equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities, transparent economic management and review of civil and religious issues facing all sections of the communities. The media must play a central role in all of these. There should be a special role played by journalists in the current situation.
The editors, in particular, should stand up and be counted. If they persist in playing the pliant servant of the ruling party, how can they be the people’s conscience? If they write and report only in the manner approved by the government, they are mere instruments of propaganda not honorable journalists.
I suppose to a large extent, Malaysian media is more about making money than anything else. They are business enterprises. They have to turn a profit for their shareholders. I suppose in a country like Malaysia, where credibility isn’t a differentiating factor, there is no incentive to do the right thing and damn the profits.
In more mature societies, a sycophantic media soon loses its credibility and its audience. Very quickly soon after, it loses its advertisers. There is a business case for credibility in these societies. In Malaysia the reverse is true. There is a business case to be sycophantic. A sycophantic media serves very little purpose in terms of its original raison d’être.
It may have a business case for being sycophantic but it is no longer the media as it is traditionally known. I do not think those of us who call it an instrument for propaganda are being unfair or unkind. Freedom should be qualified only in terms of public standards of mores. When the media does not have such unqualified freedom, it is anything but a press.
