Cyrix’s Codex

Today, let’s talk about media bias and censorship in Malaysia, shall we? I know, many Malaysian youths, including myself initially, will have absolutely no inkling what the hell I’m on about. “What media censorship? My The Star/The NST/TV news seems perfectly fine to me. It reports the news, sports and the lifestyle sections pretty well, in fact”

And you know what? Heck I agree with you totally! I feel that the Malaysian newspapers have much more content and is infinitely more interesting than the Australian ones. At least Malaysian newspapers gives us comic strips every day, instead of just once every week in Australia! Plus there’s less rubbish gossip about B-grade actors and actresses in parties there in Malaysia!

So why are irritatng dudes like an old man called Lim Kit Siang, or a deposed ex-DPM called Anwar Ibrahim, or even the ulamas in PAS constantly going on about some boring thing about ‘media bias’ and ‘censorship’? They all should just shut up and enjoy Academi Fantasia, right?

Wrong. Why? Because there is one tremendous shortcoming in the Malaysian newspapers and TV: Political news, government criticisms, and alternative views.

The mass media is a very powerful tool. In fact, I didn’t know just how powerful until I came to Australia.

Coming to Australia for a Malaysian is like escaping a Malaysian-Matrix of sorts. And I think that that’s a very good description of what happens in Malaysia. For a long time in Malaysia, I was brainwashed into believing that BN was the epitome of racial unity, that Dr Mahathir was the best thing to happen to Malaysia since Nasi Lemak, and that Malaysia was a shining example of how a successful multicultural country should be.

How wrong I was.

Bear with me for a while longer and I will try and explain why

Why is the mass media so powerful? Because, we only know as much as what the media shows us. If you don’t know anything about an abuse of power, how can you do anything about it? Similarly, if you are given almost no information of the opposition parties’s alternative ideas on how the country should be run, how can you make an informed choice come voting time? It’s like what Cypher said: Ignorance is bliss.

That’s why the media is so important. It is our conduit to what’s happening in our country. And that’s why every government will try to control and supress it for their benefit, with varying degrees of success. The Malaysian government is an example of one which has meet with extreme success in it’s efforts to do so. The other notable example is Singapore.

Don’t believe me? Then here’s an example: Check out The Star’s online version’s national news section yesterday here. In it, there are 7 articles with political content in them:

1. Najib moved by plight of the poor
2. Town abuzz with talk of two more likely by-elections
3. Outstation Chinese voters to return home
4. UMNO Campaigning despite pain
5. Kok did not break law by showing clip, says Nazri
6. Ka Ting thanks ex-teachers
7. Faster MCA membership approval to draw professionals

Notice that out of the 4 articles on the Kelantan by-elections, the first three are blatantly pro-BN ones. That’s ok, if The Star balances them with a few pro-PAS articles. But where are they? Nada.

No. 5 is alright, but what’s No.’s 6 and 7 about? These 2 are just glorification fluff for the party which owns the paper, MCA. Again, a bit of MCA promotion and articles praising their leaders is fine, provided again that The Star provides some semblance of a counter-balance to them. Where are the articles talking about how Lim Kit Siang is thankful for his teacher’s contributions towards developing his strong sense of social justice, equality and multicultural outlook in life, which lead him to join DAP instead of MCA? Or about Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) DPM, Dr Syed Husin Ali’s decision to join PRM instead of UMNO? And why was the Deputy Minister of Internal Security, Noh Omar’s idiotic statement asking foreigners to get out of Malaysia if they don’t like how M’sian police treat them censored out of The Star?

All in all, there were 5 pro-govt, 2 general info, and 0 pro-opposition articles above.

In comparison, let’s now look at the Sydney Morning Herald’s national news section for today here:

1. Immigration Department kept police in dark on atrocities
2. Gerard said no to post
3. Labor MPs welcome latest poll result
4. Govt neglecting farmers: Liberal MP
5. Reduce child poverty levels, says Labor

In you’re interested in knowing more about Australian politics, feel free to check out my excellent description of them here, which I am incidentally quite proud of Took me 2 bloody days to construct it, you know!

Ok now, let’s see what those articles are about. The first article is criticism over the govt’s deportation of a mentally-ill Australian of Phillipino ethnicity. No. 2 is another one criticising the Oz’s Treasurer (Finance Minister)’s appointment of a dogdy tax-evading businessman to the RBA (Bank Negara) board. The third is a pro-opposition one showing that recent polls (where are these in M’sia???) indicate that Labor would win an election if it was held today. No. 4 is on some of the govt’s own MPs criticising their own party for neglecting farmer’s welfare. And the last one is a pro-opposition piece stating Labor’s views on child poverty.

Notice that there is roughly 1 pro-govt, 2 pro-opposition, and 2 articles written by the newspapers themselves criticising some aspects of the govt’s actions. This is how truly balanced news reporting should be.

In Malaysia, apart from only providing some miniscule amount of space for the oppposition to air their views during election time, papers such as The Star and The NST should also constantly seek the views of DAP, PAS and PKR on any hot issue of the day. Things such as the recent police abuse incident (which the Opposition Leader, LKS had a lot to say, judging by his blog, but was given almost no airing by The Star), bank interest rates, the UPM students charged under the UUCA incident, etc.

What happened to Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to Sarawak to help the state opposition there? Or his views on non race-based politics, as stated here? I would be very interested in that. All nada in The Star.

Sure, some people might say that all that is just political gibberish and that we should just be happy with what we’ve been told. But heck, M’sian voters still have the right to know about the views of every political party in M’sia and it is up to them to make their own decisions on those things. After all, The Star doesn’t seem to have a problem writing fluff about Ong Ka Ting or Najib crying in Kelantan. Nobody elected the newspaper’s editors to become the M’sian people’s gatekeeper to information. They should just stick to writing up the facts, all of it. We can decide for ourselves which party is crap and which is doing it’s job, thank you very much.

And by the way, how many times have you seen Lim Kit Siang’s face on national TV? Here in Australia, I constantly get bombarded with the Opposition Leader’s mug shot, along with his Shadow Cabinet Ministers. And that’s how unbiased reporting should be. Most M’sians wouldn’t even recognise M’sia’s Opposition Leader of almost 4 decades!

Remember: “Free your mind” - Neo