reduced and recycled

I can’t help but feel that the whole national media is being geared toward a full scale war on prevailing opinion. The latest salvo comes from this Sunday’s edition of the New Straits Times with a supposedly exclusive interview with PM Badawi. When the NST says “exclusive interview”, they make it sound like they stumbled upon PM Badawi during the WEF summit and dragooned him into speaking with them, don’t you think. Quite like happenstance.

I looked through the write up in the online version of the interview, and saw a picture showing Hishammudin Aun with other NST stalwarts. Wait a second, isn’t En Hishammudin one of the plaintiffs in a suit against Jeff Ooi and Rocky? So what is he and his fellow NST top brass doing when they ask questions like this:

Q: But do you think the criticism against you has gone overboard? If previously there were people who disagreed with certain matters the leaders did, the government did, today there seems to be more integrated efforts from a particular group to discredit you. This is most evident in cyberspace. Why is this happening?

A: Seems that these people are captivated by these tools, the SMS, electronic media.

They feel they are free, they cannot be disturbed and they can say whatever they wish to say. They do it (post comments) anonymously.

This sort of freedom had made them resort to such action (of spreading lies and making unfounded allegations).

Even bloggers or those who maintain websites use this opportunity to create stories. Lies after lies are being told. To them, everything is not right, everything is not good.

If I allow myself to be distracted by all this, I will not be able to do any work. That is what they want, that I not focus on my work.

My focus now is to ensure the 9MP is successful and I am confident that the nation is on the right track and is moving forward.

The economy is expected to grow. I feel more energised to fulfil Malaysians’ ambitions.

I don’t know. Fighting his case in the media via PM Badawi? I’m not sure. I’m sure its purely speculative at this juncture, and Hishammudin certainly didn’t say those things above. It’s just funny that’s all. I mean, what does it mean when the Editor-in-Chief allows comments from the PM which discuss, if tangentially, “lies” spread by bloggers in general (and the defendants in particular)? Maybe nothing at all.

In any case, I wonder if bloggers do report lies. See, the way I see it, bloggers comment on news articles in the mainstream media. They then speculate but don’t assert. Sure, bloggers ask rhetorical questions like: “Is the government paranoid?” or “Is PM Badaw failing the people?” Parties are free to puncture holes in bloated speculations with truth, of course.

But truth is a valuable resource in Malaysia… especially when everything from arrangements with toll concessionaires and water deals are shrouded with blanket imprimaturs from a Cabinet which classifies these issues “official secrets”. I’m not saying the government or its representatives tells lies. I’m saying that some people might interpret classifying everything as “secret” as avoiding the responsibility to tell the truth - they don’t need to lie, if they’re so inclined, you see?

Talking about secrets, why are arrangements with toll concessionaires secret? How do details of such arrangements constitute, if revealed, a threat to national security? I’m not saying that “secret” details are potentially damaging to people in the government, of course - I’m just saying that obscurity leads to speculation and speculation cannot be controlled. The very fact that speculation cannot be controlled should, logically, influence a non-tyrannical, democratic and just government to champion transparency.

Especially where it concerns money leaking out of the collective wallets of the rakyat.

As I was saying, truth is a valuable resource, but hard to find in Malaysia. There are white lies, grey lies, multi-coloured lies, etc., but no stark truth. Maybe PM Badawi should do the following:

• De-classify documents pertaining to toll arrangements, etc.
• Allow public discussion, not merely in the official media, of matters arising from details of such agreements.
• Reveal details of the 880 projects completed under the 9MP, including allowing the independent audit of the RM 35 billion spent.

In the meantime, I’ll not be holding my breath for any of the above to happen.