COMMENT A lot of RTM’s veteran journalists, editors, producers, cameramen, and even the cleaners used to tell me stories of ghosts in RTM, either in human form, or humans with evil inner elements. Of course the former interested me more.

Sometimes, they would sit by the fence near the foyer, waving their hands, smiling at you when you are about to leave the TV station after a hectic night shift.

Or they would lean on some alpine tree planted along the road next to ‘rumah executive’ under the yellowish moonlight.

I haven’t seen any, although I’ve spent a lot of time writing, editing, proofreading my Bakun documentary series and trying to meet my deadline.

Until April 28, that is, when I found one ghost which can tell only lies. This ghost story started with an incident that occurred the day before, on April 27.

NONE More than 10,000 natives of Sarawak from Sungai Asap resettlement area were eager to continue watching a documentary series aired by TV2 under a Chinese programme called ‘Galeri Mandarin Nasional.’

This 10-episode documentary series had been on the air  since Monday (April 26) and Tuesday (April 27), but some evil forces mysteriously put to a stop to the broadcast.

Until today they have not been exorcised .

Wing Miku, a Bintulu blogger, who is also a native affected by the relocation programme under the  Bakun Dam project in 1998, called RTM director-general Ibrahim Yahya ( below ) almost immediately after that documentary went off the air at 12.20pm on Wednesday, April 28.

NONE The latter picked up the phone and answered, as if clueless: “Tidak, kita tidak ban, memang hanya ada dua episode sahaja.” (No, this is not a ban, two episodes only).

When Wing told the Datuk that he was informed by the TV producer (me) that there were 10 episodes that were supposed to be broadcast and asked why he decided to shelve the rest, Ibrahim Yahya’s reply was, “Saya ada meeting” (I’m at a meeting).

We don’t know how long the DG’s meeting lasted, but when a Malaysiakini journalist called him to question him on the matter, he seemed to be - or maybe he pretended to be - so involved in his never-ending meeting that he could only answer Malaysiakini briefly.

He denied that he was the one who gave the instruction, via his chief reporter Jumat Engson, to suspend the documentary series until further notice.

If nobody in the entire RTM had been given the instruction, then surely, a ghost must have done it.

This being seems to be so familiar with the technical mechanism of RTM that he/she managed to stop the airing of the documentaries, either by making the online tapes disappear or by ordering a technician to  replace the 10-minute documentary with other material without any prior knowledge of the  instruction to substitute Bakun with other kinds of scrap such as the trailer for the  kungfu movie ‘IP Man’.

Heng to investigate ghost’s job

After this mysterious event and protest by various stakeholders, including Sungai Asap natives, journalist groups like CIJ, student organizations, NGOs, etc, Deputy Information Minister Heng Seai Kie decided to look into the matter, promising  to investigate this particular haunting business.

ghost exhibition in shah alam 150906 Unfortunately, this is not the end of the ghost story.

After a series of denials and confused answers from the RTM director-general, instead of investigating the inner ghost responsible for the whole affair , he “might have” had hired another ghost, perhaps the Chinese officer who was introduced to us, to oversee the Galeri Mandarin programme.

This new actor  was introduced to the Galeri Mandarin team members at a April 29  meeting. That introduction was confined to only his name and role.

I dare not say the DG “had hired” this guy for the job  because he may deny it, again. So we can assume some ghost perched higher in the hierarchy  had issued  the instruction to hire an ex-minister’s secretary tasked with the mission to conduct a spy-like dirty job, most importantly, by wasting taxpayers’ money with absolutely no benefit to anyone, least of all the public.

NONE I suggest that Heng probe this, as well: why the immediate action from RTM top management to take the programme off the air and not find out who was responsible for that stupid instruction? Why, on the contrary , had he/she hired a spy to oversee Galeri Mandarin production team?

Heng should also find out how much some ghost in RTM had agreed to pay this spy a month. Or a day? To carry out a dirty business which serves no public interest but only wastes our money and throttles Sarawak natives’ voices?

If RTM has so much money to throw on  such meaningless things, I would suggest they spend some of it on mainstream newspapers as well as on news portals apologising for suspending the programme.

They owe 10,000 natives in Sungai Asap and all TV2 audience an apology, together with a sane explanation as to why the Bakun documentaries had been shelved and remain so until now.

 

Self-censorship by RTM as well as other TV stations and mainstream media coming on the heels of the World Press Freedom Day is totally unacceptable and unethical.

It’s time for journalists and media owners to defend the  integrity of their profession and speak up against political censorship.

Ghost stories such as this will only undermine Prime Minister Najib Razak’s promise of a “vibrant, free and informed media.”

 

NONE Chou Z Lam, 42, was senior journalist in the print media before venturing into tv production in 2007. He is presently one of the producers for RTM's 'Galeri Mandarin Nasional', the Bakun Dam series he produced but had been killed off after only two episodes were broadcast.