Ever tried to catch those midget crabs on the beach? Tricky little creatures they are. They don't just zip straight to their holes. They scurry - sideways. One of the toughest crustacean fighters, crabs don't confront their enemies by clawing forward. They sidle. Constantly monitoring the surrounds with their compound eyes, they scamper the beach. Once they hit home, they burrow right in.

Next, ever tried trespassing a place where the guard dog never sleeps? Step into its space, they don't just bark. They bite. It's the thoroughbred you'd want to respect. They guard and growl, ready to pounce when you cross the line.

Crabs and guard dogs. Their instincts and movements can teach us a few lessons in journalism. 'Guard dog journalism' obviously doesn't work in the Malaysian context. "Crab journalism" may.

Our media guard dogs are overly docile. They whimper each time the intruder, nay the government, hollers "Don't report this!" For instance, when editors are summoned to Putra Jaya to meet with ministers and be told how to frame particular issues, such as the unexplained hikes in highway tolls last December. Does it not make you crabby each time you read of another state incursion into our media space? You'd bark and jump like mad, wouldn't you?

From where the government sits, however, mad guard dogs can be easily re-trained. Or, put down. Some were put down during Operation Lallang in 1987. Many were re-trained. As a learned colleague once remarked, our media guard dog is "free to bark ... so long as it knows its role, and does not bite too hard, it is allowed to roam around the compound of the house". Thus, the notion of "lapdog journalism".

Some editors tend to reason that "lapdog journalism" is not a choice but a consequence of media laws and ownership structure that define what cannot be reported. Contextually, it makes a lot of sense. And editors, after years of earning fat salaries and enjoying the rewards of canoodling with those in power, know the costs of changing the status quo. But, for thinking journalists, the true believers, there's always a choice if one cares to look beyond the lapdog's line of sight.

Which brings us to the notion of 'crab journalism'. Coined by Indonesian journalists in their criticism of the country's largest daily Kompas , 'crab journalism' could offer an alternative route for our public scribes to off-load their burden of nodding 'yes' each time Putra Jaya hollers. 'Crab journalism' knows when to throw the punches, and when to pull back. Crab journalists are experts in veiled interview techniques: ask many questions and scurry the grounds to get the one thing you want. Once they find their holes, they burrow right in and dig up the dirt.

Journalistic imperative

I spoke with Kompas publisher and editor-in-chief Jakob Oetama in Jakarta in November on how he managed to "punch and pull" during Suharto's stranglehold on the Indonesian media. With so many mad dogs running wild in the unregulated media environment post-1998, which gave rise to the notion of 'senin-kamis jurnelisme' (1) does he see Kompas leading the field in showing what ethical journalism is all about? Since its birth in 1965, Kompas has remained Indonesia's largest daily.

The media should ideally monitor political trends, protect the poor, and advocate for social change. However, Pak Jakob says, as long as the feudalistic culture among politicians remain, the people will be poorly served even if 'new democracy' has replaced Suharto's 'new order'. Here lies the journalistic imperative to inquire, investigate and hold politicians accountable for what they say and do.

"Now we practise democracy, but are the state leaders practising a democratic culture? Or is it still feudalistic? The culture remains the same," he said.

"The state leaders are still sensitive to criticism and find something to blame. It is because we still have a feudalistic culture. In fact, democracy should be transparent. During the era of Pak Harto, I took all these into consideration and played carefully. My colleagues sneered at me. They called it jurnalisme kepiting (crab journalism)."

Pak Jakob says Kompas managed to play its role well over the decades like a crab, it moves sideways, avoids direct confrontation with the state, but relentlessly hones in to the holes of public corruption, then burrows in to extricate the dirt.

A critical content analysis of Kompas's coverage of Suharto's regime may or may not confirm Pak Jakob's assessment. Nevertheless, his commitment to the ideals of investigative journalism, crab-like it may be, makes me wonder what our editors were thinking when they were summoned to the Deputy PM's office on Dec 12 to discuss the toll hikes.

Short-changed

Malaysian mainstream journalists have obviously 'played too carefully' in our home-grown brand of jurnalisme kepiting . Our journalists don't even attempt a left hook when they see an opening. I have vainly tried to get my head around why Malaysian editors refrain from challenging the flawed game rules or even questioning politicians and councillors who are a law to themselves. Why are mainstream papers not tackling story angles, topics and concerns tackled by, for instance Malaysiakini , community blogs and media watch organisations such as the Center for Independent Journalism or Aliran?

Indeed, we are short-changed when journalists play safe and tell less than what they know. Painting an incomplete picture is as bad as spinning a story.

Are journalists, in unthinkingly deferring to protocols, assuming that source credibility, respectability, and integrity are embodied in titles and honorifics, from the YBs and AMNs to the YABs and PJKs. When confronting the orang besar and questioning their actions is considered kurang ajar , aberrant politicians and public figures are bound to prosper in a culture of impunity and corruption.

To be fair, some among the committed media minority, like the clever crabs, have resorted to writing between the lines. But, alas, the hidden truths in the story are only as clear as the readers' ability to decipher the nuances of crab journalism. We may look to the younger generation of journalists to give this crabby notion a trial run.

Footnote: (1) It refers to the burgeoning of commercialised newspaper publishing after President BJ Habibie deregulated the media industry. With a lack of professional code of practice and driven by quick profit making schemes from advertisements, many fly-by-night publications were short-lived. Thus, the notion of publishing on Monday and closing down on Thursday the 'Monday-Thursday journalism'.