THE PEN IS TRULY MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD OR GUNS IN OUR CASE

Net power rocks Malaysia’s rulers

Charmaine Hon | March 13, 2008

THE internet played a key role in the outcome of last weekend’s stunning Malaysian general election results.

Voters flocked to alternative online news sites and blogs, rejecting government friendly mainstream media.

The results of the March 8 election shocked the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, with its position in the national parliament reduced from 91 per cent of available seats to 63 per cent.

Gayathry Venkiteswaran, executive director of Malaysia’s Centre for Independent Journalism, believes online activists and bloggers helped stimulate civil activism during the election by highlighting corruption through the internet and text messages.

That led to a new level of activism, which was apparent at recent rallies by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections and the Hindu Rights Action Force.

“It’s given people a sense to be brave,” she said.

The media in Malaysia is strictly controlled through two instruments: the law and corporate political collusion, she said.

Print media are required to apply for publishing licences annually under the Printing Presses and Publications Act, and publications that have been critical of the Government have had licenses withdrawn. Under the act, companies that have their licences taken away cannot contest the decision in court.

And friends of government ministers are given preference in the acquisition of broadcasting licences, Ms Venkiteswaran said.

The Star, a leading English-language daily, is owned by Huaren Holdings. That is the investment arm of the Malaysian Chinese Association, the Chinese division of BN.

Media Prima, which also has ties with BN, owns five television stations, at least four daily newspapers and two radio stations.

Since 1999, Malaysia has had an online news portal called Malaysiakini (Malaysiakini.com). It is Malaysia’s most prominent alternative news portal and was the only media outlet providing live coverage of the election results on polling day.

In contrast, the mainstream print media waited until the Electoral Commission released its official statement before announcing BN had won by a simple majority, several hours after the results became clear.

Ms Venkiteswaran suggested the mainstream media held back the results on purpose. She said that in previous elections the results were usually reported by 2am, but this year the news of BN’s unexpected loss of seats was reported close to dawn, and its coverage mainly focused on states where the BN did well.

The Malaysiakini portal usually operates on a subscription basis but on March 4, four days before the election, it allowed free access for a week.

“We hope that voters will be able to access independent news so that they can make an informed decision on polling day,” Malaysiakini chief executive Premesh Chandran said when announcing the decision to open up the site. Malaysiakini reverted to subscriber-only access on Tuesday.

Asked how mainstream media covered the election, Malaysiakini’s editor-in-chief Steven Gan said: “I would refrain from criticising my colleagues in mainstream media; they’re trying their best but they are writing in a strict environment.” He added, however, that by not reporting the bad news regarding BN once the information became available, mainstream media was not doing its job.

“We (Malaysiakini) exist because these guys are not doing their proper job,” Gan said.

In the lead-up to the election, three independent activist groups - the Centre for Independent Journalism, the Writers Alliance for Media Independence and Aliran, a reform movement dedicated to justice, freedom and solidarity - set up a Media Monitors’ Diary website (www.aliran.com/elections) on which they published analyses of the mainstream media’s coverage of the election.

The final report will be published on the website next week, but the bias is apparent already.

“I can tell you offhand that the content analysis shows that the mainstream media’s content is in favour of BN,” Ms Venkiteswaran said.

Opposition candidates frustrated by the mainstream media’s bias used blogs as a campaigning tool.

They included Jeff Ooi, the new Jelutong MP, who has become known as Malaysia’s most influential blogger. Even the election’s oldest candidate, Maimum Yusof, 89, had her own blog and Facebook group.

Gan said the influence of the internet on the election has altered Malaysian politics.

“You know, I think that the results were really unprecedented in many ways and the good thing about Malaysia is that although the penetration rate is not very high, as compared (with) Singapore and South Korea, it’s high enough for cyber activists to exploit it.”

He said if the Government continued to make broadband available to all, the internet would play an important role in the years ahead, especially in the context of issues relating to good governance and transparency.

 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23364431-7582,00.html?from=public_rss

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Malaysia can do it - So can we - BULA MALAYA KEI VITI TALEGA!

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