Twinkle, twinkle, little Star

Is that journalistic black hole, The Star , about to explode into a veritable supernova of truth, fairness and fearless investigative reporting? Certainly that’s the impression that Wong Chun Wai, the chief group editor of that dim and disreputable apology for a newspaper, seems currently at pains to try and convey.

Launching himself into cyberspace on May 1 with his ‘ New Malaysia ’ blog, he then used this vehicle on World Press Freedom Day to call for an end to all the evils that The Star and its competitors represent.

"For the Malaysian media, whether they are in the print, electronic or internet medium," he wrote, "it's a day when we are stand together to show our common stand of demanding greater press freedom. The freedom of expression is an essential part of democracy. A healthy democracy means a meaningful participation of Malaysians in the political process."

And so on. And as if that item wasn’t sufficiently out of character, he followed it up with a post reporting that Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Aziz had declared that the Printing Presses and Publications Act would be abolished "over my dead body", urging Nazri to "learn to trust Malaysians more" and adding that "politicians should not be afraid of criticism".

But that wasn’t the end of it. Blow me down if he didn’t address the subject again, not just on the Net this time but in his own paper, in his ‘On The Beat’ column on May 4.

Proclaiming that it’s time for the prime minister to "remove the shackles" by reviewing the numerous laws restricting the media, he said that, "Malaysia can never be the same again after the March 8 political tsunami. The people have now realised the power that they have in their hands. They have spoken out loudly for the changes they want".

"They have expressed their unhappiness at the things which they found are not right in this country. The mainstream media is certainly one of them, and this newspaper is no exception."

MCA party hacks

There was a lot more in this reforming vein, and he also addressed the issue of how suspicious some might be of his born-again liberalism.

"Understandably, there will be cynics who see the mainstream media as an unchanged leopard, or as chameleons to some, but many things have changed since the political tsunami. Those who initiate positive changes should be encouraged, not condemned or ridiculed."

All the same, I noticed that, while many comments on his and other commentators’ blogs were encouraging, some weren’t so understanding or forgiving of Wong’s apparent about-face.

zky: You have got to be kidding putting up statements like these... what a joke!!! Please go through your archives articles in your paper The Star during those pre-election days. Then you preach about making a statement on World Press Freedom Day.

Mustapha Kamal: Be careful Datuk, or else your Datukship may be revoked! If only you had shown some integrity in your earlier writings, maybe we could have listened to you. But with the utterly biased nature of your past articles, you have lost credibility, as least with me. So please take your ill-gotten gains and get lost. We don’t need your crap any more...

Kerp (PhD): While we’re at it, can you tell your friends there at TV3 their biasness and ass-kissing reports will not go far, as proven in the recent PRU.

My sentiments exactly, guys. I just wonder what Wong’s up to. Turning over a new leaf, having seen the writing on the wall for himself and other perverters of the Malaysian press? Spinning, as ever, on behalf of his MCA bosses, now so desperate to portray themselves as anything but the Umno lackeys they’ve been for so long?

Or, along with other prominent newbie bloggers like Mohd Khir Toyo and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is he enlisting in BN’s belated and ill-fated battle to win the political cyberwar? As long as I’m questioning Wong’s motives for his apparently fearless call for press freedom, let me also express my doubts as to whether he and his editors and journalists would use their new-found liberty to turn The Star into a genuine newspaper.

Even in the absence of the PPPA and other forms of government control, surely the thing would still be owned, controlled and thus biased in favour of the same MCA party hacks who currently call the tune.

Grey-and-white

Certainly there would be some token attempts at balanced coverage, as now with the press freedom issue, the better to retain and regain readers with at least a semblance of integrity and credibility.

But would it be transformed into a genuine ‘people’s paper’ devoted to impartial, in-depth and investigative reporting of events and issues impacting on its readers? Would its reporters blossom into real interviewers rather than re-writers of press releases and police reports and passive takers of dictation from puffed-up personages and their official spokespersons?

I very much doubt it. Despite the impressive CV and his calls for liberation from oppressive media laws, Wong seems happy if not outright proud to run a newspaper that’s as short on quality and ethics as it is on political integrity.

Its pages are littered with advertorials posing as editorials, and most of its content is as dull and dismal as it looks. In fact, like its dying competitor, the New Straits Times , it’s grey-and-white instead of black-and-white, as though somebody waters the ink.

So I have an inkling that it’ll take a lot more than a self-interested or self-preserving call for press freedom to make editor/columnist/blogger Wong Chun Wai a stellar figure in journalism. And a much brighter effort from his editorial staff – or better still some bright-spark new staff – to restore enough twinkle to the newspaper to make it worthy of the name The Star .