The way the anti-Malaysia media campaign is waged
Raja Sara Petra
“Malaysia arrests pro-democracy leader ahead of anti-PM rally,” said the Reuters news headlines
Any novice or cub reporter
knows that a ‘Dog bites man’ headline does not sell as many newspapers
as a ‘Man bites dog’ headline would. So headlines are very important and
the way the news is written gives the reader the message you want to
deliver. Basically you can judge a book by its cover, as much as the
saying goes the opposite.
In reporting the Bersih rally today, Reuters and Today Online reports
those arrested as ‘pro-democracy’. This, therefore, can only mean that
those who arrested these people or ordered the arrests are
anti-democracy. And since the Prime Minister is mentioned in that
headline the impression given would be that Najib Tun Razak is
anti-democracy.
From this headline, anyone who
does not know Malaysia or Malaysian politics well would get the
impression that Malaysia is ruled by a dictator or a government not duly
elected in the proper process. The argument the opposition puts forward
is that Najib’s government won less than 50% of the votes in the last
election and therefore should not be running the country. But then is
this not also how things are done in the UK or the US as well? It is not
votes but seats that determine the winner.
At least Reuters got
one thing correct, that today’s Bersih rally is an anti-Najib
demonstration. Those such as G25 who support today’s rally say they are
fighting for institutional reforms. Institutional reforms is a big word
and may entail many things such as civil liberties and human rights.
Would this include the rights of the LGBT community, the recognition of
gay unions, the rights of Muslims to leave Islam, the rights of
Malaysians to live as husband and wife without the need of a religious
ceremony (like in more advanced countries), and much more?
Muslims such as those in G25,
Bersih, and so on, talk about change. The question is how much change
are they prepared to accept and how far are they prepared to go? For
example, change can also include the right to publish cartoons of
Prophet Muhammad. If Muslims are still sensitive about what they
perceive as insults to Prophet Muhammad and/or Islam then they are not
yet ready to talk about change.
Different people participate
in and support Bersih for different reasons. While some do genuinely
want to see free and fair elections or a reform of the electoral process
(which was what the original Bersih in 2007 was all about), others just
want to see Barisan Nasional brought down or Najib ousted. Many of
these people who, today, support Bersih were the same people who
exploited the system to stay in power and resisted change when they had
to power to bring about changes.
Maybe we should all read
George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ to understand what is happening today. In
this book the animals fought for freedom from tyranny but when the
animals came into power they became worse than the humans they removed
and the cleverer animals, the pigs, oppressed the not so clever animals.
It is ironical that ‘Animal Farm’ portrays pigs as those political
animals that exploit other animals for their political gain.
I suppose at the end of the
day it is the media that decides who is the patriot and who is the
terrorist. And you can be either, depending on how well you play the
media. History always determines the hero. And it is the victor who
writes history. And the western media always likes to take the side of
those who oppose authority. Nevertheless, the media does not always
determine the winner, as Donald Trump’s victory has shown. And this is
going to be the same regarding what happens to Najib.
