| JULY, 1999 - VOLUME 7 NO.6 |
Media hegemony in Malaysia Anil Noel Netto on alternative media and the strength of the Internet in Malaysia. Tan Kok Hin, a retired salesman and Buddhist, pores over the pages of Harakah, the newspaper of the opposition Islamic Party, PAS. “We can get all the news here which we can’t get from the other local media,” he says, as he flips through the latest issue of Harakah. “We get information about the wrongdoing of the ruling coalition.” For many Malaysians like Tan, the Malay-English bilingual newspaper, published twice weekly, is a welcome alternative to the heavy propaganda dished out by Malaysia’s mainstream media. Harakah’s readership used to be confined to a segment of the country’s Muslims. But the sacking, arrest and brutal assault of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim last September shocked many Malaysians and sparked Malaysia’s reformasi movement, which is seeking broad-based political and social reforms. Readers of mainstream newspapers quickly realized that they were not getting the whole picture of the disturbing events in the country from the official media. So they have turned in droves to the Internet, which features foreign and alternative media reports and a host of critical web-sites, and to Harakah, until then a party organ with little appeal to those outside the party. Within weeks of Anwar’s ouster, Harakah’s circulation shot up from 70,000 to hit a peak of 300,000 before stabilising at about 250,000. On the face of it, it looks like press freedom is flourishing in Malaysia. “A lot of truth is reported in the alternative media,” says social activist Jubal Lourdes. “The thing is the circulation is controlled.” Many new Harakah readers like Tan are knowingly or unwittingly flouting an official regulation restricting the sale of political party organs to party members only. After a couple of stern warnings from the authorities, Harakah started carrying a ‘For Members Only’ notice featured prominently in bold letters, just below its mast-head on the front page. But that hasn’t stopped Harakah’s independent network of news-vendors from selling the paper on the quiet to non-PAS members like Tan. “Harakah is taking a risk to distribute to non-members when it should be their right,” says media analyst Mustafa Anuar. Not so fortunate was the opposition Democratic Action Party, whose newsletter The Rocket disappeared from news-stands when the ‘party members only’ ruling was first introduced. Welcome to the reality of the Malaysian media. Despite tight controls on the mainstream media, several lively alternative media have sprung up catering to a more politically aware readership. In the process, it has also has loosened the strong grip that mainstream newspapers once had over the population. Apart from Harakah, other alternative publications — a new Malay language newspaper, Eksklusif, and a Malay political magazines, Detik—have also plunged into the fray. This new vibrant alternative press has eaten into the circulation of the traditional mainstream papers such as Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia, which are controlled either by component parties of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition or by ‘friendly’ firms aligned to the coalition. Malaysian officials are clearly worried about the impact of the alternative media as a general election looms. Though the election is only due in mid-2000, many expect Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in power for 18 years, to capitalize on a minor economic rebound and call for snap elections. Faced with the challenge from the new press and the Internet, the government is, not surprisingly, keeping the electronic media - television and radio - on a tight leash. On July 2, Information Minister Khalil Yaacob announced that the opposition would not be allowed to use state-run RTM to promote their agenda, a move critics denounced as undemocratic. Though private television stations such as TV3 and NTV7 could decide whether to give space to opposition views, they are unlikely to do so for fear of upsetting the government, which approves their broadcasting licence. For years, the traditional media held a monopoly over the dissemination of news. Despite being public property, state-run Radio Television Malaysia, which operates two television networks and a slew of radio stations, is often manipulated to serve the interests of the ruling party. “They are not fair to all parties, especially in the run up to the elections,” says media analyst Mustafa Anuar, adding that this is not something new. “But maybe this time it is more acute because the government’s credibility is under close scrutiny by the Malay community,” which makes up about half the population. This time around also, there is a real difference, observes Mustafa. “Previously, the opposition did not have alternative means to communicate but now they have Harakah and the Internet.” Unlike the government, which has been slow to adapt to cyberspace, opposition parties and non-governmental organisations have exploited the potential of the Internet and are successfully reaching out to a huge cross-section of middle-class Malaysians. Created by computer-savvy webmasters, a string of snazzily designed web-sites support-ing reformasi and Anwar have each received millions of ‘hits’—the number of times viewers access a particular ‘page’. Thousands of Malaysian have latched on to Internet mailing lists (such as Sangkancil and ADIL-Net) and newsgroups (such as soc.culture.malaysia), exchanging news and views, often extremely critical of the government. For them, cyber space is a refreshing alternative compared with the staid pro-government press. Today there are about a million Internet users in the country, many of whom have become politically aware and now shun the mainstream media. But the limitations are obvious as the Internet’s audience is mainly the urban, middle-class crowd, not the majority of rural Malays, whose votes will be crucial. Still, the Internet does reach many Chinese Malaysians, whom Mahathir is actively wooing now that the Malays are divided over his handling of the Anwar saga. The rot in the traditional media set in after a major crackdown against dissent in 1987, which saw over 100 critics detained without trial and three vocal newspapers having their licences suspended. The temporary closure of the three newspapers ended a brief period in the 1980s, when segments of the press in Malaysia were beginning to assert their independence. The credibility of the media nose-dived further with the biased pro-government reporting of the Anwar saga. As if the fear of a crackdown is not enough, editors today have to contend with a slew of other laws that curb independent investigative journalism. Earlier this year, about 600 journalists submitted a petition to the Malaysian government calling for a repeal of the various laws limiting press freedom and to allow the press to function independently. The Official Secrets Act can turn make even the most innocent government report into a state secret and out of reach of an inquiring journalist. The Printing Presses and Publications Act prohibits the publication of ‘false news’ and requires publishers to apply for a new publishing permit every year. In practice, this requirement makes many editors afraid of offending the authorities or of carrying articles that it cannot verify absolutely. Then there is the much-feared draconian Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial—a catch-all law that hangs like the proverbial sword of Damocles over any critic of the established order. Faced with such laws, newspaper editors have not surprisingly developed self-censorship into something of a fine art often setting self-imposed limited parameters beyond which they would not tread for fear of rocking the boat. Often, these editors take their cue from government officials. Thus, there is no questioning in the media today about the country’s expensive ‘mega’ projects and the Prime Minister’s new multi-million palatial residence. Alarmist terms such as ‘smog’ and ‘bail-outs’ are deemed too sensitive and substituted with the milder ‘haze’ and ‘corporate restructuring’. And of course, the words ‘cronyism’ and ‘nepotism’ are a big No-No. No questions are asked either about corruption involving senior government officials, extravagant public spending and the shortage of affordable housing. “The mainstream media become terribly investigative in their reporting when it comes to the opposition,” observes Mustafa, “but when it comes to the ruling coalition they are just full of praise.” It was Mustafa who coined the term ‘cue journalism’ to describe the phenomenon of editors waiting for the cue from government officials before deciding what slant to take or which news stories to push. If discerning Malaysian readers are put off by the media propaganda here, they can expect worse as the election draws nearer. Television and radio are transformed into the official propaganda organs of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. This time around, facing a stiff challenge from a united opposition front, the Barisan is unlikely to allow the opposition even the token air-time it used to give them over radio. The pro-government television, radio stations and newspapers employ a host of tactics to win votes for the Barisan coalition in the run-up to the elections: stirring up communal sentiments, warning of instability should the opposition do well; and trying to create rifts among the opposition parties. There’s absolutely no room for opposition party views in the mainstream media, says activist Lourdes. “Its actually a highly ridiculous situation. State television and radio actually belong to the people but the ruling coalition abuses it by not giving any room for opposition parties to publicize their views.” As time passes, it is likely that the alternative media and the Internet will go from strength to strength and reach out to more Malaysians barring another major crackdown. But for now, state-run official television and radio stations are likely to overwhelm the alternative media and the Internet in the run-up to Malaysia’s most crucial election in years. Analysts are watching to see if the alternative will be up to the challenge. This article was contributed by Anil Noel Netto, who is based in Manila.