The ban by media conglomerate Media Prima on the airing the video footage showing the Perak speaker being forcibly dragged out of the May 7 state assembly sitting has been described as the “latest sign of the return of Mahathirism”.

Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said he expects the suppression of information will increasingly become the order of the day.

“We are only coming to the sixth week of the Najib (Abdul Razak) premiership, but already there is a long list of ghosts and taboos which the new prime minister and his administration are in mortal fear and which are being banned from permissible public discourse...,” he lamented.

v sivakumar perak state assembly speaker being dragged out of the assembly incident 130509 film strip Malaysiakini has yesterday reported that Media Prime ordered the footage not to be aired in all its television stations.

Media Prima, which is said to be linked to ruling party Umno, controls the country’s four free-to-air private TV stations - TV3, NTV7, TV8 and TV9.

According to a source who requested anonymity, Media Prima staff received ‘directives’ from senior managers on the evening of May 7 not to screen the controversial footage despite one of its stations had captured the whole incident on tape.

“We have the entire visuals of Sivakumar being dragged out of the chair. However, we received instructions from the top not to screen it,” the source told Malaysiakini.

These ‘goons’ should be punished

Meanwhile, Lim argued that if the act against Perak speaker V Sivakumar is deemed so abhorrent that it should not be shown to Malaysians, then the police officers and the “goons” who were responsible for it should be punished.

“The physical violence of dragging out the speaker should be even more reprehensible – but why has no action been taken against them although they can be openly identified in photographs and videos?”

The ban by Media Prima is not new as Malaysiakini had reported last month that a TV station under its stable were given similar instructions not to name political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda when reporting on the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case.

“The Najib administration can ban the disgraceful footage from being aired on television stations but can they ban the playing of the footage in Malaysian homes or being viewed by millions of people worldwide?” asked Lim.

“Just as the book-banning of tyrants and repressive regimes of olden ages had failed, the banning of video footages, snatching of laptops, video players and mobile phones are also destined to failure – as truth can never be suppressed.”

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