Thank goodness for Malaysiakini

To be perfectly upfront with you - and why wouldn't I be, in Malaysia's only honest news outlet? - this wasn't my first choice as headline.

In fact it was the third. The first one I tried, 'Thank Christ for Malaysiakini ', expressed my sentiments far more emphatically as well as a touch alliteratively, but I abandoned it on the grounds that it might make me seem like some born-again God-botherer.

And of course my second alternative, 'Thank God for Malaysiakini ', presented me with exactly the same problem, plus the added possibility that readers of every religion might consider it blasphemous or even in breach of heavenly copyright.

Like the case of a woman condemned to a flogging for grogging, the more recent cow-head incident has shown that it pays to be almighty careful in Malaysia when it comes to questions of creed.

PAS and Umno apparently both vie for the right to claim the local rights to Islam.

And the Barisan Nasional (BN) government pretends to be the fount of Islamic virtues as a cover for its engagement in appallingly unIslamic vices.

BN hypocrisy at its most hubristic has been evidenced lately by the re-appointment of inspector-general of police Musa Hassan despite, as DAP MP Teresa Kok has rightly written in Malaysiakini , "his atrocious track record in maintaining law and order, selective prosecution, corruption, incompetency and below-par performance".

Branding as a "blatant lie" Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's claim that Musa's extension of service was due to his "excellent record", she went on to wonder what "great service" he has performed to warrant Muhyiddin's praise.

As Kok doubtless recalls as well as we do, the "great service" that made Musa famous and doubtless helped win him the job of IGP in the first place, was the leading role he played in the show-trial of Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy 10 years ago.

And I'm betting that his term of office is being extended so that he can bring this experience to bear in the impending trial of Anwar all over again on precisely the same trumped-up charge.

I fancy that Premier Najib Abdul Razak sees this next judicial assault on Anwar as his trump-card for beating Pakatan Rakyat well in advance of the 2013 general election that BN is otherwise doomed to lose.

'Shoot the messenger' order

And, in anticipation of a riot of public outrage as when Dr Mahathir Mohamad framed Anwar previously, he's marshalling the forces he feels he needs to control the situation.

Hence not only the extension of Musa's term as chief of police, but the installation of Najib's cousin, the keris-waving Hishammuddin Hussein, as his head enforcer.

So far, however, Hishammuddin hasn't seemed any more successful as home minister than he was in his previous portfolio, education.

In fact his performance in the cow-head affair has left him looking more like some lumbering lembu than BN's raging bull.

Instead of taking action against people who protested against relocation of a Hindu temple by maliciously misusing the head of a cow, he claimed in a press conference after meeting them that they had "no intention" of provoking racial or religious ill-feeling.

That, incredibly from a man who routinely oversees the arrest of peaceful protestors against the BN government!

He defended the cow-punchers' right to protest, saying: "In this day and age, protests should be accepted in this world as people want their voices to be heard. If we don't give them room to voice their opinions, they have no choice but to protest."

This noble sentiment didn't prevent the arrest a day or two later of a handful of people holding a candlelight vigil, however.

Nor did the spirit of forgiveness extend to those reporting Hishammuddin's stupidities.

In a classic case of BN's by-now traditional ‘shoot the messenger' routine, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) ordered Malaysiakini to delete two videos - one of the cow-head protest itself, and the other of Hishammuddin's pathetic press conference.

Which finally brings us back to where we came in, 'Thank goodness for Malaysiakini '.

I shudder to think how much less hopeful life would be for intelligent, upstanding Malaysians, not to mention foreigners like myself, without this outstanding news outlet.

Stand up against the mighty

Inspired by the spirit of reformasi , 10 years come November, it has been the lone journal standing for truth and justice against the might of the mainstream media.

Without Malaysiakini setting the standard and showing the lead, it seems to me that opposition bloggers, however courageously crusading, would be written-off by the government as just a rebellious rabble.

But Malaysiakini provides a rallying-point, and a highly professional one at that, reporting hard news for all those of us who would otherwise be just groping in the dark and crying in the wilderness; and refusing to be bullied or cowed by threats like this latest one.

Informed by a letter from the MCMC that Malaysiakini is in breach of Section 211/233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 for displaying videos of the anti-temple protest and the Hishammuddin press conference, editor-in-chief Steven Gan rightly replied that the videos are news and in the public interest.

Not to take 'No' for an answer, however, now an investigation team from the MCMC has spent eight hours in the Malaysiakini office questioning lots of other people I'm proud to call colleagues: CEO Prem Chandran, editors K Kabilan, Nasharuddin Rahman and Fathi Aris Omar; journalists Rahmah Ghazali, Jimadie Shah Othman and Andrew Ong; cameraperson Amir Abdullah; video editors Shufiyan Shukur, Ng Fok Foong and Lydia Azizan.

I'm always nostalgic for the days when I used to drop by for a Nescafe tarik with news editor S Vicknesan and the gang at the mamak shop beside the modest Malaysiakini office in Bangsar Utama, down the hill from that massive monument to dead journalism, the New Straits Times' Balai Berita .

I'm especially missing them right now. But at least from way down here in Sydney, I can still contribute a few words in moral support of my favourite band of fighters for truth, freedom and justice.

Thank goodness for Malaysiakini , and the fact that it can't be silenced.