By Shamala Suresh Kee

“Malaysian Newspaper Forced to Shut Up” (by Jed Yoong, Asia Sentinal, 22 February 2008) truly made me feel appalled at the recent state of Malaysian press. Cited as an endangered species by Jed, independent newspapers are now extinct with the purchase of The Sun daily by business tycoon, Vincent Tan, whom currently is involved in V.K Lingam trial, a trial that pertains to justice brokerage by the senior lawyer. According to the report, an extensive change in the main line-up of The Sun was made, soon after the purchase. Ho Kay Tat is now being replaced by a new editor-in-chief Chong Cheng Hei and Zainon Ahmad is now the ‘consultant editor’.

I must say, The Sun is a staple read for me and most readers who want vivid and explicit reports especially on recent controversial cases and I am doubtful that we would not be denied that with the shift of ownership. Attempts again attempts are made to control and restrict Malaysian media under the flagship of national and public safety, especially post 13 May 1969 and later during the ‘reign’ of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad starting from 1981. The implementation of the Printing Ordinance in 1948 to curb communist activities posed as the stepping stone towards the control of print media content ‘for national and public safety also to handle sensitive issues regarding race and religion’, as chanted till today by the authorities even after the amendment of the Printing Ordinance to the draconian Printing Press and Publication Act, that does more than regulation of content but also, the ownership of the media.

A critical voice, loud enough to affect the ruling government has never been heard, and the coming election would definitely see stringent measures to subdued the press from reporting shortcoming by the dissolved cabinet in their governing years and much less, proposition on better governance referring to mistakes would be off the limits. What could be seen, though, propagated in Radio television Malaysia are a study on the increase of crime rates in Kelantan (an opposition state), done by scholars from a public university, the advertising of Perkampungan Hadhari in Kota Bharu that promotes Kelantan local produce, the remorse of a ‘Mat Rempit’ and his choice to change and learn ‘multimedia and animation skills’ through free workshops provided by the government, hence supporting the move to make Terengganu the hub of multimedia and animation. The Indians are asked to be thankful to Indian leaders whom had ‘built Aimst and Tafe College for Indian students’ like wise.

What they did not mention was, “How the Indian leaders explain the disappearance of MAIKA Holdings share money”. And, things like, “Is it true that Indian Temples are being demolished at a high rate” and “Why there were 6 protest rallies in the last 4 months?” And, “How is it, the ex-member of the dissolved cabinet, The Health Minister, Soi Lek, got caught in a sex scandal”, or, ‘Why the parliament leaked after RM90 million worth of renovation done in 2005”. And, so on and so forth. And, finally PAS had enough, submitting a memorandum to RTM’s Chief Operating Officer over the slanted, one-sided coverage at RTM headquarters yesterday.