BN’s bizarre bouts of shadow boxing

By Helen Ang

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To read mainstream media (MSM), one would have thought that BN had been contesting invisible opponents in the 12th General Election.  

The newspapers left hooked, right jabbed and upper cut Barisan Rakyat candidates to the extent of providing more than enough material for a media doctoral thesis. Yet MSM allowed hardly any fair airing to the Opposition they mauled in their bizarre show of silat-boxing. 

I shall provide just two examples to encapsulate the above. 

Karim Raslan, who is columnist with The Star and The Edge, wrote in the latter publication this week: “I can’t get over the astonishing sight on the TV news of Lim Guan Eng wearing a smart suit, sitting behind a bank of microphones and speaking as the new Chief Minister of Penang. Before that the only time I saw him was as he was either entering or leaving jail. I don’t think I really knew what he looked like.”  

If a polished urbanite like corporate lawyer Karim could confess thus, what more the rest of less sophisticated Malaysia caught in the MSM Matrix?   

Guan Eng was recently on the front pages (an occurrence as rare as the perfect alignment of our solar system’s nine planets) not because the newspapers ‘bertaubat’ – see the error of their ways and repent – but because the rakyat spoke at the ballot box.  

The second instance of BN-MSM shadow boxing concerned Anwar Ibrahim who complained a few days before polling that the Malaysian press launched a “vicious personal attack” against him. Erstwhile Keadilan deputy president Chandra Muzaffar had provided the ammunition for MSM’s open season.  

Anwar’s recourse to right of reply was taken in Singapore where he was corporeal to the reporters there, unlike the purported “irrelevance” in his own country.  

It’s true that established newspapers in democracies do endorse particular political parties and politicians. However, in Malaysia it goes way beyond acceptable partisanship. 

Let’s discuss this further. Today’s Star Online has Samy Vellu commenting “a smaller community like the Indians have to fight for their rights and that could only be done through MIC.” It is his opinion; we may agree or disagree and the paper is of course entitled to publish Samy’s sage saying.  

However, Star’s news article ‘Disaster if Anwar is PM’ on March 4 editorialised on Chandra’s remarks that “although Barisan Nasional was flawed, there was no other coalition in the country”. March 8 gave lie to their fairy tale.  

Here the paper had colluded with Chandra to tell a bedtime story in Malaysia’s time-honoured tradition.  

But now, all the MSM horses and all the MSM men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again (see previous post) because their credibility is in shreds. The egg has cracked; time to fry the omelette with Makkal Sakthi.  

This forum is open to discuss the many ways to cook an egg.