The country can’t be built on APCO speeches!

Posted by hartalmsm on March 20, 2010 · 13 Comments 

As I read the following article, I felt my breakfast pick itself up from my stomach and slowly begin its journey up my esophagus. Even the previous night’s delicacies couldn’t help but begin its migration from my intestines.

I’d like to offer a punch-by-punch rebuttal on this blatant lie perpetuated by the Malaysian MSM. If anything, I hope it placates my meals enough to convince them to resume their normal journey.

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Come and be my partner, Najib invites the press

(Bernama) – Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak today invited the local media to be his partner in his journey to transform Malaysia into a more prosperous and peaceful country.

He said the government needed the media to communicate with the people and educate them throughout the country.

“I would like you to be my partner in my journey to transform the country,” he said at the inaugural National Press Club-Naza Awards Night here today.

(HartalMSM) UMNO-controlled Media Prima owns: TV3, NTV7, 8TV, TV9, FlyFM, HotFM, OneFM, NST, Berita Harian, Harian Metro, and Malay Mail. UMNO directly owns Utusan Malaysia, Mingguan Malaysia, Kosmo! newspapers, and Wanita, Hai, URTV, Harmoni, Saji, Kawan, Infiniti, Pemikir, Mangga, Al-Islam and Mastika magazines. MCA owns the Star, Sin Chew Daily, China Press, Nanyang Siang Pau, Guang Ming Daily newspapers, RedFM, SuriaFM, 988FM and Kuntum, Shanghai, Galaxie, Flavours, Bintang SinChew and Sinaran SinChew magazines. Samy Vellu PERSONALLY owns Tamil Nesan and the who’s who of MIC controls all other Tamil papers.

Bloody hell! You are the ultimate boss of just about ALL the media companies in Malaysia, and you are talking so nice and want to “invite” them to “partner” you? Besides that, there are plenty of laws to strike at any media that doesn’t play the official tune.

What Najib is saying is like a gangster asking business owners to “partner with him” to keep peace in the area where his gang collects protection money, at the same time having his goons at the back waving knives, clubs and guns.

“Invite the press to be his partner”? yeah, right…Who are you trying to kid?

Najib said there was a kind of symbiotic relationship between the press and the government which was absolutely critical to the future and Malaysia’s development as a nation.

“Symbiotic relationship”…interesting phrase. The Collins English Dictionary defines symbiosis as “a close association of two animal or plant species that are dependent on one another” or “a similar relationship between interdependent persons or groups”.

And that’s absolutely true. The BN uses the MSM to lie to the rakyat to stay in power, and in return the BN allows media owners to make lots and lots of money. How this translates to helping Malaysia to develop remains to be seen since most of the world’s biggest business investors come from countries that place a permium on media freedom.

“The press needs to report on the government just as the government needs the press to communicate its message effectively to the people… I need the press to understand and appreciate the situation in the country, and to communicate effectively and educate the people,” he said.

The prime minister also urged the media not to maintain its status quo by embarking on different ways to do their reporting.

He said accusations that Malaysia lacked press freedom were grossly unfair.

“As long as the reports do not run afoul of our existing laws, the press is free to report on pretty much anything.

Yeah…but the laws in Malaysia ensure that you can get into trouble for anything, as the recent Star retraction and threats to SinChew have shown!

“Besides, all of us are well aware that in any case, anything and everything is already written in the alternative media, whether based on fact or entirely made up of slanderous fiction,” he said.

Same goes for the MSM doesn’t it?

Najib said mainstream media organisations obviously had a higher standard of accountability and were more mindful of what they reported, being aware of their standing as respected media establishments.

“But to say that this therefore means that there is no media freedom is simply incorrect.

“There have been many favourable stories on oppostion figures just as there have been many negative stories on government personalities,” he said.

There’s some very clever phrasing here! But to get the complete picture of what Najib is saying, we need to fill in the blanks ourselves: many favourable stories on oppostion figures (in Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan) just as there have been many negative stories on government personalities (in those same states).

Ini Grade A propaganda, ni! Nod bad la this APCO!

Najib also commended the effort by NPC to honour members of their own peers based on the evaluation of an independent panel.

He said the awarding of the “oscars” of Malaysian journalism such as what was being presented tonight, was bound to create great excitement in the media fraternity and help improve the quality of local journalism.

Yup! It’s all so much like a prestigious Blue Ribbon Dog Show where the most obedient animals get rewarded for showing off how well they can obey their masters’ ridiculous commands like catching frisbees, running obstacle courses and other demeaning stunts!

However, he said this did not mean that the quality of the Malaysian media was poor.

“I, for one, believe that the Malaysian media is something that we can all be proud of,” he said.

Really? Our PM is proud that most of our newspaper and magazine articles are cut-and-paste jobs from news agency releases? That most locally-written articles are re-hashes of 3rd-party stories? That ALL editorials are so tightly-controlled by the BN that primary school kids with a good textbook memory can write an officially acceptable one? Our PM accepts such low standards one, ah? Habislah our country!

Najib said it had always been his view that freedom without responsibility was not freedom at all but chaos.

The issue here in Malaysia is not that the MSM has freedom without responsibility. The MSM here has NO FREEDOM at all! They are all held by a tight leash!

“I believe the world media can take some lessons from our Malaysian media, who don’t shovel into the private lives of individuals, generally speaking, or launch… personal vendetta.

Really? Take a look at the world’s journalistic code of ethics here. Then take a look at Malaysia’s own code here. Does Malaysian media come even close to practising these codes of ethics?

And what’s this about not shovelling into the lives of individuals or launching personal attacks? What about all the attention focused on Saiful’s a**hole, then? Chua Soi Lek’s tapes? The press demonisation of Anwar, Lim Guan Eng, Karpal Singh, SIS, the “kaum pendatang” and other groups/individuals?

“I believe that if we are at peace with ourselves today, it is because the Malaysian media has tempered its coverage of sensitive issues with a huge dose of social responsibility,” he said.

The prime minister said a sense of responsibility and a dose of self-censorship went a long way in preserving the delicate balance of Malaysia’s multiracial, multireligious and multicultural society.

You just have to read Utusan to know that this statement is pure BS!

“This is probably what some self-appointed western guardians of the free press at times fail to understand.

“As we work collectively towards greater unity and cohesion as 1Malaysia, we must always bear in mind that our collective end goal is a better Malaysia for our children to inherit,” he said.

Najib added that it was pointless if the so-called media freedom meant a free-for-all situation where sensitivities were ignored, feelings hurt and hatred ignited ultimately leading to disunity and strife, which benefited no one.

Is this “better Malaysia” modelled after PERKASA’s vision of a nation divided into the Malays and their “pendatang” enemies? It must at least include some of that since the PM is going all out of his way to amend the BN constitution to allow PERKASA to join!

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While Najib’s APCO speeches sound nice, the truth is that the reality is nowhere near what is presented. What the country needs is thorough reform, solid ideas, tough implementation, a return to the rule of law and core principles of democracy, and the return of power to the rakyat.Glowing speeches are not going to achieve that.

Let’s call a spade a spade: to speak so pleasantly while doing the just opposite is called LYING!

What we really cannot understand is how the journos in the MSM can go to sleep at night knwoing that they were willing partners in crime in foisting this huge con upon the country.

For a more accurate evaluation of media in our country, go here.

Filed under Media Matters, Poodle · Tagged with awards night, BN, malaysia, media, MSM, Najib, national press club, npc, press, UMNO