COMMENT On the third printed page of its Sept 1 issue, The Star featured a story about “a group of university students” who “’stormed’ LRT coaches”. One of the students was even so bold as to identify herself to the newspaper, and declared, “You don’t see many of these fun, guerilla style events in Malaysia.”

Indeed, guerilla tactics have surely been rare since the pre-Merdeka days when Chin Peng, to quote The Star ’s Sept 16, 2013 obituary , “led the MCP’s guerrilla insurgency and fought against British and Commonwealth forces to establish an independent Communist state”. The article then proceeds to note how the train occupation was part of a larger movement in which “Malaysians can take part by posting on social media”.

I admit to being quite confused by this article. I was surprised to not find another article cautioning police action to be taken against this public assembly. If a few yellow balloons in a shopping mall are a threat to peace, surely guerilla action on a public train must be at least disruptive. Nor did I find any reports of threats against university students participating in this activity.

Equally surprising, I rifled through the pages of this physical object (newspaper) yet found no patronising warnings of the roguish behaviour of social media users.

The recently released Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Mission Impossible 5: Rogue Nation’, begins with a secret agent atop the KL Tower, attempting to hack into a Russian satellite. Why does he need to go to the top of the tower to do this?

After watching the film on its opening night in Kuching, I was reminded of this scene the following morning when reading an article in The Borneo Post , titled ‘Student gets ‘higher’ education in an Internet hotspot’. The article describes how a student in Bau, a short drive from the capital of Sarawak, built a tree house in order to reach high enough to catch an Internet signal.

Meanwhile, perhaps because the film wants to celebrate Malaysians’ supposed preference for bad Internet , the aforementioned secret agent apparently also needed to reach high ground in order to access the Internet.

Without Internet access, a student is unable, for example, to access the Education Ministry’s public-private partnership in 1BestariNet : “For the first time, high-speed 4G mobile Internet and a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be made available in all schools nationwide. For the first time, every child in Malaysia will have access to world-standard learning tools. An excellent education should be the right of every child. Now it can be.”

In the public-private cyberspace of the Education Ministry, “now” apparently does not refer to time as we know it in the real world.

A veneer of progress

Meanwhile various agencies provide a veneer of progress by adding the prefix ‘e-’ to various public services (a competitor to Malaysia’s other favourite prefix, as 1 family has pointed out : ‘1-’). So, for example, if you can make it to the top of your tree house, you can enjoy e-filing, e-Tanah, E-Syariah, or eKasih. We are meant to see “inovasi” in the new bright glow of ‘e-’, yet where actually is the cost-cutting and increased efficiency here?

These ‘e-’ services invariably simply duplicate instead of replace traditional print methods. Must one produce a hard copy of one’s car registration with a ‘chop’ before a stolen car investigation can begin? Don’t the police already know one’s plate number?

Do the computers at their desk really not have access to that information? And we do know that Malaysia does not use Interpol software to check immigration records, because 0.2 seconds is too much extra time to spend at the border control counter.

I recently attended a forum sponsored by the prefix-friendly 1Malaysia Foundation in Kuching, and a concerned resident took the floor to ask how people in rural areas are supposed to apply for jobs and services when they don’t even have access to the Internet, or in some cases even electricity to power the computer.

For those in urban areas, one is encouraged to never leave your workplace and instead order your lunch with your smartphone or computer (like ‘Dah Makan’, the application promoted by the social media of the Economic Transformation Programme ). However, if one wants to use these IT devices to convey information or express an opinion, well maybe you’d prefer to move to a rogue nation.

The top of page 4 of The Star on July 17, 2015 featured the following headline : ‘Be more discerning when sharing news over social media...’ An accompanying photo showed a video conference call with overseas Malaysians. Rumours spread online, we are told, and we should not believe them.

However, on the previous page , The Star , with little display of ‘discerning’, reported a rumour posted via a social media site that uses video. That story , which has been debunked over and over again, concerns a former editor of a print newspaper, whose inconsistent claims on YouTube have been touted as evidence by ‘some quarters’, to use the language of some quarters.

Whenever one is scolded for using social media, and told to instead trust traditional print media, one may want to consider how that argument does not really work in Malaysia. One, print media in Malaysia is far from objective. The political leanings of the owners of The Star and Utusan Malaysia are certainly well-known. The Borneo Post is owned by one of Sarawak’s major timber companies.

The best way to become more ‘discerning’

It’s true that the social media landscape is flooded with nonsense. Yet so are Malaysia’s newspapers. The best way to become more ‘discerning’ is to read, to learn, and to enjoy access to information.

Of course Malaysians have witnessed objections to not only online media. In rural Sarawak, where newspapers cannot always reach, the ‘traditional’ media of radio has long been a popular format. Yet representatives of the Sarawak state government have repeatedly condemned independent radio, some of which has nonetheless received international recognition from established media organisations.

The other reason the argument against a so-called lack of ethics in social media fails in Malaysia is the questionable standard of ethics in Malaysian mainstream journalism (not to mention Malaysia’s current international ranking in press freedom ).

It is true that, in places with a free and professional press, established print media may carry more weight than social media. Anyone can write anything for the world to read on Facebook or Twitter, but journalists writing for newspapers are expected to have expertise, trained in their field, ask follow-up questions, and follow a code of ethics.

Let’s take, for example, the code of ethics in Australia. (One of Australia’s key exports is education, and one can even study journalism in an ‘offshore’ Australian university in Malaysia). Article 4 of the Journalists’ Code of Ethics of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance reads as follows (my emphasis):

“Do not allow personal interest, or any belief, commitment, payment, gift or benefit, to undermine your accuracy, fairness or independence.”

The National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia does not have such a rule as such (furthermore, this union only uses the male pronoun, even though female journalists do in fact exist). The closest comparable rule is Article 7: “He will regard as grave professional offences... The acceptance of a bribe in any form in consideration of either publication or suppression.”

However, many institutions in Malaysia, including learning institutions as well as government bodies and private companies, consistently bestow gifts upon journalists, hosting ‘media appreciation nights’ to thank the press for positive coverage. (It should however be noted that some news organisations in Malaysia do adhere to the basic standard of not accepting gifts - Media Prima Berhad for instance.

A statement of Malaysiakini ’s funding practices can be found here ).

One of the ministers in the Prime Minister’s Office recently warned of the dangers of social media: “Freedom of speech, she said, should not be abused by social media users and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which were alleged to be present at the Low Yat Plaza riot.”

Curiously, at the same time she cautions against abusing freedom of speech, she passes along alleged information. And, at this same function in which she lectured on media ethics, she and two other members of Parliament gave a total of RM25,000 to the Kuching Division Journalists Association and the Sarawak Press Photographers Association.

‘I don’t care what’s right or wrong’

In the words of Kris Kristoferson, whose song ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night’ was reportedly sung by the same minister at a recent media appreciation night : “I don’t care what’s right or wrong.”

Strangely, at an event celebrating a roomful of reporters, Malaysiakini reported that “Event organiser and Najib’s press secretary Tengku Sharifuddin Tengku Ahmad declined to answer any questions about the event”. Instead of answers to questions, maybe a smartphone can help you make it through media appreciation night.

But when, then, is ‘social media appreciation night’? Will bloggers, Facebook friends, or Twitter users ever receive similar gifts for their contributions to the spread of knowledge and critical thinking in Malaysia? What kind of gifts might they get? A television? A new car ( no need to be a Malaysia-made car either)? An e-handout?

As websites are blocked and print newspapers are suspended, perhaps instead of a gift or a serenade, social media users in Malaysia would most appreciate something else - freedom of expression.

DR CHARLES LEARY is a lecturer in film and cultural studies. He is from America and lives in Sarawak.