From Around The Blogs: The Week of March 1, 2010

From Around The Blogs

By Joe Fernandez

The mainstream media is a tough job for anyone
Design is important as much as sectionalising the paper further to make it as complete a job as possible.

That said, it cannot be denied that the nst needs to ask itself whether it is presenting news as it should be or burying the news angle as usual. This is not about the English language as many posters in this blog seem to imply. This is not about waxing lyrical in the Shakespearian style although there's a place for such things. News that matters can even be badly written and it will get the attention and importance it deserves. Just consider malaysiakini's on the site breaking news feeds. When you don't really have anything new to report on anything, structuring a news story as it should be to get public attention is one of the hardest things to do in the world. If you can't do this, then the rest doesn't really matter. This is what malaysiakini has got down to a fine art despite some lapses in language and grammar and where Nst has been found wanting.

The bloggers have muddled the picture further in Malaysia, as elsewhere, with presentations the man in the street naively takes for journalism. This is somewhat like Chinese newspapers prying into the love lives of unnamed private persons or playing up ghost stories and gory accident scenes and the readers applauding it as great journalism. However, the ineffectiveness of most bloggers lies in the fact that they don't really make a difference when it comes to forcing the authorities to act against wrong-doers. If anything, most bloggers are gluttons for punishment as evident from numerous defamation and sedition cases against them. This should not be seen as attempts to muzzle the bloggers but rather the law making sure that it is not made to look like an ass in the face of what amounts to as virtually asking for it provocation. Most bloggers mix a little bit of half-truth with a lot of fiction or repeat the kind of libel and falsehoods found in police reports and statutory declarations.

Whether the bloggers really made a difference during the last General Election remains a moot point. The thousands of Hindraf supporters who took to the streets during the Nov 2007 street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur and the mid-Feb Rose Rally in Putra Jaya don't really read the blogs.

It's a numbers game in the vote-count, assuming that the political parties are as organised as they should be to take on the competition. Here, the tsunami-like effect was provided by the Hindraf Makkal Sakthi phenomenon providing the catalysmic effect and the opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim merely jumped on the bandwagon. It must be noted that Indians form significant numbers in 67 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia despite the community not having even one "Indian" seat. The political tsunami may yet prove to a flash in the pan unless Hindraf Makkal Sakthi re-enters the electoral picture again to make a difference in the numbers game. This would be harder to do if Najib manages to get his two-third majority in Parliament and the new electoral boundaries are passed to neutralise the shift in votes at the last polls.

Sarawak is ripe for the taking but unfortunately the BN is going to win by default because the opposition is not organised as a local affair but rather one parachuted in from Peninsular Malaysia. This is a no no in Sarawak. Even in Sabah, Umno would collapse if PBS pulls out from the BN.

Moving beyond, the Nst has to contend with the numerous anti-press laws, unlike the alternative media like malaysiakini. In fact, it is the existence of these numerous anti-press laws that is fuelling the alternative media as a growth industry in Malaysia. Do away with these laws and the alternative media would collapse overnight. Mind you, the bloggers are not alternative media and would continue to attract people to their trade.

Prime Minister's Department a Hyper Ministry
The Prime Minister's Department has emerged as a Hyper Ministry since the time of Mahathir. Even then, Mahathir was forced out. No matter what Najib does, he cannot prevent Malay politics from splintering & continuing to splinter. The issue is GREED. It has become increasingly impossible to satisfy the greed of every Malay since 1969. So, when jealousy comes in, the politics will splinter. Then, there are the minorities in Peninsular M'sia, the Chinese, Sabah & S'wak. They want their place in the sun & will be wooed by one Malay faction against another. These are all factors that will prevent Najib from projecting himself as another Malay Hitler. The old Umno politics of twisting & turning every issue into a racial them vs us issue will no longer work. The Malays didn't take the bait when Umno twisted the Allah issue into a racial issue & started torching churches & threw wild boar meat, bought neatly wrapped in plastic from the Orang Asli, into the mosques in party strongholds.

Economic downturn blessing in disguise for all
If what Anwar is predicting comes true, it can only be good for the opposition. Those with money should consider it a blessing in disguise. There are always opportunities where there are problems. Those who only have their proverbial shirts on their backs should consider going into small trades for themselves. Those who depend on wages will be run out of town by the illegal immigrants. Umno will never change. Their politics is based on jealousy of the Chinese in business. Hence, they will always be looking for ways to become as rich as possible in the shortest time possible by stealing the people's sweat from the Treasury. We have seen this happening with Umno Klang in the PKFZ scandal where the federal gov't was saddled with multimillion dollar bills for works not undertaken or landed with bills which were double, triple or even ten times what it should have been. There is no secret when it comes to BN’s scam development projects.

There's nothing in mandore politics for Indians
What these new mandore politicians mean is that they didn't get their cut from their previous president and want Najib to fork out another RM 5 million ostensibly to run the party. This is like P.I. Bala who was willing to run away from justice for Altantuya for RM 5 million but when the other two rascals involved made off with RM 4.25 million of "his" money, he started singing from India. So, probably Rosmah has paid again the balance of the money due to him. Otherwise, he will continue singing from India in various ways. Better to pay the balance of the RM 5 million due to P.I. Bala rather than risk the premiership. So, it seems that Indians these days can also be what others have been for so long i.e. being totally unprincipled moneyface creatures without even an iota of conscience. The new MMSP president, like a blackmailer, will probably get what he's demanding. That goes for the other "BN-friendly" Indian-based political parties. There's nothing in mandore politics for Indians.

Blanket denials by NRD won't do
The NRD has a lot to explain. What about the confessions or statements by ex NRD officers & former ISA detainees to Police & the Select Parliamentary Committee? Can NRD explain foreigners claiming their MyKads were obtained through Project IC? What is Project IC to the NRD? Ex-NRD staff themselves have been going around as late as 1999 with copies of lists of aliens given MyKads by the NRD. The Special Branch stepped in to deter such public disclosures. The right thing for the NRD in Putra Jaya to do is to contact Dr Jeffrey Kitingan & have a dialogue with him. Experts including lawyers should come in & explain on behalf of the NRD. Blanket denials won't do. Even recently, it was revealed in Tawau that the NRD was using the Mobile Courts as a cover to issue MyKads to illegal immigrants from Sulawesi. All Bugis. The Elections Commission & SB were present. Why the EC & the SB? If only the eligible get MyKads, why is that many genuine cases don't have this document? Many people stateless.