The People’s Parliament

By Helen Ang

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A dozen years ago, renowned economist Paul Krugman wrote a tongue-in-cheek forecast: “for all the talk of an information economy, ultimately an economy must serve consumers – and consumers don’t want information, they want tangible goods.

“In particular, the billions of Third World families who finally began to have some purchasing power as the twentieth century ended did not want to watch pretty graphics on the Internet – they wanted to live in nice houses, drive cars and eat meat.”

A half dozen years ago (the last time in which I glanced at Sports pages), I could reel off the names of the world’s top tennis players. The factoids then at my fingertips were ‘information’ but not ‘knowledge’ because they had no bearing on my life. In the first place, I don’t play tennis. In the second, it’s badminton that is more popular in Malaysia.

Newspapers have come to serve consumerism. Women tennis players are big in advertising – leggy, long-haired blonde Maria Sharapova endorsing major products and her progenitor, the pretty petite blonde Anna Kournikova becoming a mini celebrity.

Some Malaysians read avidly about the blonde Hilton heiress-cum-reality TV star Paris … but really, what’s she got to do with THEIR lives? You read about teenage phenomenon Miley Cyrus who plays Hannah Montana in the popular Disney show. There are on sale Hannah Montana make-up kits and other retail stuff for young girls; Disney is well-known for its merchandising franchise.

MSM has been hijacked by the materialism agenda and become a vehicle for ads, or to deliver not-so-subtly the advertisers’ marketing message through sponsorship and promotional tie-ins. I’d infamously written here that MSM “is where Malaysians are keen on things like penning insipid contest slogans in the hopes of winning a refrigerator”.

My fellow Hartal committee member Shar observed “whilst MSM usually provide space for advertisers, theSun actually advertised themselves to the public as a credible source of information presented by an intrepid group of fearless and ‘in your face’ journos”.

Well, it’s true enough that the paper engaged a PR-advertising firm to do their marketing campaign, and its editors reflexively apply the term ‘branding’ to their paper concept. If Clark Kent worked at theSun instead of the Daily Planet, he’d be promoting a metrosexual fashion trend of wearing spandex underwear on the outside, and we might expect Brenda Starr to wax lyrical over facials.

As the world remembers journos, I’d like to use this space to record my appreciation of the unsung heroes who are not newspaper byliners but working behind the scenes to lend true meaning to Press freedom.

Berita Malaysia is my invaluable daily news list, sampling items from both the MSM and a variety of alternative info sources. The e-group – founded by Uncle Yap – is moderated by Y.W. Loke and Chuah Siew Eng, volunteers who do the job 24/7 pro bono publico.

Loke is dedicated and indefatigable and goes the extra mile by collating several articles on the same theme showing the different facets to stories. This he does with academic rigour to give a balanced presentation of a topic or report. Siew Eng I know. She graduated in journalism and was previously in the print media industry, and I remember her as an energetic cili padi on activism.

Another valuable resource for me is the Aliran Media Monitors’ Diary whose co-ordinators are Dr Mustafa K. Anuar and Anil Netto. Dr Mus is a journalism lecturer at USM and sometimes writes in the Aliran Monthly. Anil has been egging him to start a blog. And he has! debuting May 1, here, http://mustafakanuar.wordpress.com/

Anil was formerly an accountant, now writing on socio-economic justice issues but not in Malaysian MSM. He says, “I have always believed that we can build a more just and compassionate world” and I’m glad this is the reason that drew him into journalism.

Aliran has a tagline: “Justice was never won without personal sacrifice – whether measured in time volunteered or energy devoted to a cause” and I think the description fits these four individuals.

They’ve pointed out the news worth perusing and how it should be regarded critically, and enriched my own reading. A ‘Free and Fair’ media can only be founded on the individual’s innate sense of justice. That I think is the mark of anyone who contributes to Press freedom in whatever form it takes.