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So what’s next, Pak Lah?

At first, I did not know how to react to these headers in the newspaper – “The media more credible than blogs” and “Article 11: Stop the forums

I agree that the mainstream media seems to be more credible than blogs as blogs post are sometimes can be a mere opinion posted by anonymous writers. You are reading one right now. Some blog posts are written based on hearsay, other blog post, political preferences or prejudicial act. Some “evil ones” do not even allow the readers to comment on the post so there is no avenue to counter the content of the post.

But then again, does this mean the mainstream media carry the gospel’s truth and as such the rakyat should just shut up & agree with it?

We all know that the mainstream media license are renewed on a yearly basis and if they intend report something “bad” on the Government, they need to be prepared to tone down the story or don’t publish it at all. Otherwise they may have difficulty renewing license the next year.

So, the question for the mainstream media is “Are they telling us the whole truth or heavily censored snippets?”

The spate between NST and the Dr Mahathir’s camp over the last few months have dented the credibility of NST especially when it is made clear that some of the “earlier” stories published in the paper was not true. There was little reporting of the recent UPM students fiasco in the mainstream medias despite of the strong video evidence.

“If someone makes a racist remark, do you need to put it in the press, even if it is true?” asked Pak Lah.

But let me ask Pak Lah this question “What if racist remark was made by someone in the Government or made by someone in the ruling political party? Should we just take our hands and close our ears & eyes and act as if such statements were not made? What if such person who made the racist remarks continues to make racist remarks, knowing very well that it will not be reported by the mainstream media?”

If you are not been living on the other side of Mars, you will probably realize that most of the racist remarks from people in the Government or ruling political party. In fact, they seem to be more racist than the average rakyat who have other important things to worry about (like increased electricity bills & fuel price).

Are they? If you need to ask the question, ask this:-

What about the guy who held up a keris and made statements that got the other races concerned?

What about the MP who referring to Indians as keling?

What about the MP who shouted racist several times when a legitimate issue was raised in the Parliament?

What about the guy who spent two days calling for women (muslim or non muslim) Parliament staff to wear the tudung?

What about the issue of getting non muslim policewomen to wear tudung all in the name of “uniformity”?

What about the group of people who have been going around demolishing Hindu temples?

What about the writers who blamed the Indians for the Kampung Medan clashes?

I agree to the question “if someone makes a racist remark, do you need to put it in the press, even if it is true?” Racist remarks are dangerous and if not used at the right time and place, can put the country in chaos. But there must be active steps taken by the Government to curb and punish those who make the remarks to show that such acts are not tolerated in the multi-race country. Instead we have such people who made such remarks walking off scot-free and still in a position to make more remarks. On the other hand, people who are concerned with the possible intrusion into their beliefs and practices are consistently being told to shut up.

Article 11 is such an example – where the pitfalls and shortcoming of protection of the minorities in law and current practices of government calls for a serious concern.

The court and the government failed to address the issue. That is what most of us perceives the situation to be. So if Pak Lah wants us to drop the subject, no problem, we can do that. We don’t want to drag things further anyway. It is just that I would like to know what does the government tends to do about the issues raised. Act like nothing have happened whilst the rights of the minority slowly erodes away?

In the parting, I like what Aisehman said in his blog:-

“If you follow Pak Lah’s reasoning, a blog is sensationalist even when it exposes the truth, while the mainstream media is credible even when it hides the truth”

Pak Lah, any comments?

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3 thoughts on “So what’s next, Pak Lah?”

  1. Haha…Nilesh, I agree with AM there. It’s getting worse day by day but the mainstream medias are still writing as if everything is well and fine…

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