To my post entitled ‘You want democracy on a silver platter?’, kimchan sent in a comment.
I reproduce below an excerpt of that comment :
‘…All that I have done, is to try and instill some sort of consciousness amongst friends and relatives, and nothing more. Having said this, however, what do you expect of a woman, who is almost 45, have a little child of 3 and is also a bread winner of the family? I believe there are many like me, so much of pain in us, wanting so much to do something for the country and for the child or children they have, yet limited by the fact that the children are there…Think of people like us, Haris, think of a way people like us can contribute, perhaps not with the risk of having to leave child uncared for… If you can find a way, many people like us will come and contribute.’
Firstly, kimchan, do not belittle your efforts to create awareness. That is, in my view, the most important effort all of us who want to see change in this country must engage in. Every little effort counts.
And, yes, I agree, there are many people faced with different circumstances who want to do something for the country but are constrained by one thing or the other.
You asked me, kimchan, to think of a way where such people may be able to help.
Well, how about this?
On 14/11/2007, I asked if we had it in us to bring the falsehood mongers ( MSM ) to their knees. You can read the post in full HERE. It also appears as a permanent page on the right.
I have for a long time now stopped buying the local papers. Why help to finance the government’s propaganda machinery?
I had also suggested boycotting products advertised in the MSM. This received a mixed reaction.
Today, this blog officially kicks off this initiative to sever the jugular vein of the government’s falsehood factory.
kimchan, if you haven’t yet, now’s the time to say ‘No’ to falsehood mongers. Tell your friends, your relatives and your colleagues.
Boycott the newspapers.
I reproduce below an article of the same title by Helen Ang which appeared in Malaysiakini on 29/11/2007
__________________________
I feel like I’ve just been slapped, kicked and punched. And I’m neither Indian nor Hindu.The way mainstream media (MSM) have painted our fellow Malaysians black makes me thoroughly sick. MSM have assaulted Indians through their derogatory portrayal of the community and it stings me. Aliran Media Monitor’s Diary has effectively dissected MSM spin on the Hindraf rally to show up how unconscionable their coverage has been.When a community with its back to the wall takes to the street, I sympathise. I do not mock the melodramatic form of their lawsuit and petition. I understand that the massive turnout on Nov 25 was a cry of distress. Nathaniel Tan’s
‘Why I will walk this Sunday’ is an eloquent peroration on why all Malaysians must wake up, now.I wish I had read Nat’s piece earlier but it was only uploaded on his blog Saturday – a mere day before the gathering was to take place. His exposition is something to turn over in our heads and help us in our soul-searching because Nat spoke straight from the heart. Mighty MSM, I’m afraid, speak from the pay pocket.
There was a dearth of information in the public domain running up to the Hindraf rally, and later contradicting accounts of what really happened. Which only indicates MSM have long since lost any right to call themselves ‘newspapers’. A fortnight earlier, the Star had quoted police on a crowd segment of 4,000 at the Bersih march. This small number is deliberately misleading.
And again with Hindraf, MSM deliberately omitted an accurate depiction of the massive turnout. They failed to credit why Indians streamed into KL from all over the country. All they did was spin for their political masters.
What’s important to MSMThe Star peddles itself as the People’s Paper. This People’s Paper gave the Bersih rally all of a single page’s coverage, reflecting how much The Star thinks of the Malaysian people – us. It did not carry any picture of the crowds or of human beings. It had one photograph of motorcars stuck in a jam.
When casino magnate Lim Goh Tong died, he was front page news. Bersih on the other hand was hidden away in the middle pages. The Star devoted seven pages to the late tycoon. And it talked about the Tan Sri for days after, to the extent of telling us how much his funeral wreaths cost.
Lim is not ‘people’, he’s one person. Instead of the People’s Paper, the Star might want to consider tagging itself ‘the Very Important Person or VIP’s Paper’.
Then there was that column in The Sun headlined “Not everybody needs to demonstrate, please” which implied the tens of thousands of Malaysians at the Bersih rally had turned out in support of “a group whose acronym could be mistaken for a Clean Toilet campaign”. Jacqueline Ann Surin wrote: “All I wanted to do last Saturday was go for a facial …”Almost everyone took Surin’s flippant column at face value. She’s a well-known journalist who has advocated working within the system. However, her own take on the Bersih march is surely an indictment of the system’s limitations. ‘Proper channels’ serve only to restrict the reporter and his report becomes equivocal. Surin is an assistant news editor no less; how would foot soldiers fare in trying to get their stories past the gatekeepers?
Meaningful access to the public is ever so precious in these our turbulent times; Surin wasted hers talking about her irrelevant Saturday. I am going to fight for the public space which will enable a write-up like blogger Nat Tan’s unflinching Sunday to get the widest possible airing.
Call for Hartal ‘Do we, the people, have it in us to bring the falsehood mongers to their knees?’The above question was tossed by civil rights lawyer Haris Ibrahim in The People’s Parliament. What Haris asks is urgent in view of the general election coming up.
We need credible information. The public knew too little about Hindraf before last week and hence couldn’t make up our minds whether to support the march or not. So we don’t want to be confused by MSM lies when the election comes around.
We need credible reporters to seek and speak the truth, even if these are citizen journos in pyjamas. There have been three street walks, all of them ‘illegal’. The authorities have criminalised the freedom to assemble peacefully – a right guaranteed us in our Constitution. MSM is in denial by making out participants of the walks to be the bad guys.
Newspapers are nothing more than errand boys delivering warning telegrams from Umno and its lackeys: May 13, ISA, sack teachers who support Hindraf and other innumerable threats.
These newspapers do not have many credible news editors, only some incredible spinmeisters.
Not only does MSM keep us in the dark, they spooked us with Hindraf’s alleged sedition, left us wondering whether the gathering would proceed, and if another Ops Lalang was underway.
We buy newspapers with the expectation of reading reliable reports but if these are not forthcoming, why waste money? Or pay to have our intelligence insulted. The act of saying ‘No’ to newspapers is hardly taxing for those of you reading this now. The harder task is to spread it as a national message and convince others.
A cause everyone can supportWe are not breaking any law by making a personal decision not to buy newspapers.
We are not causing trouble by refusing to read newspapers.
We are not promoting racial disunity by boycotting newspapers.
Religion is not in this picture frame.
We’re doing good by saving money, close to RM1,000, in fact, if we cancel two annual subscriptions.
Why do this? Because we are Malaysians with conscience and our conscience is troubled.
We’d like everybody – anyone who reads online – to hop aboard and join in our demand for an end to MSM spinning and spinning webs of deceit.
Connect with us on how to break the mighty MSM monopoly of the Malaysian mind. We’d like your participation at People’s Parliament.Cyberspace is as real as you care to make it. We can do more than talk. We can act.
We will.
Hartal!
The People's Parliament 
CHK
December 21, 2007
Inflicting financial pain on the lying, biased mass media is the most effective way to punish them for their shameful and irresponsible behavior.
And financial pain is the only pain they recognize. Boycotting newspapers is one way. In parallel to boycott, I would like to suggest another method – go straight for the advertisers in these media.
Newspapers, TV and radio derived most of their revenue from advertisers.
A committee can be set up to write letters to some of the major advertisers such as Nestle, P & G, Maxis, Unilever etc, to reduce their advertising expenditures by 50% (or whatever)immediately, failing which the committee will launch a boycott of products from these companies. These expenditures can be tracked through the ADEX report published by AC Nielsen.
The companies, if they have their customers at heart, can use money saved from advertising for price-off promotions to benefit the consumers directly, especially during this time of rising prices. Companies that refused to comply will be targeted for a nationwide boycott campaign through emails and SMS.
For the boycott to be effective, perfect substitutes must be available so that consumers are not inconvenienced. In the case of Nestle products, instead of Milo and Maggi, the committee can recommend substitutes such as Vico/Ovaltine and Cintan/Indomie, which are not regularly advertised, to the general public.
It is not necessary to start the campaign on a large scale. As the Chinese saying goes, slaughter a chicken to frightened the monkeys. We just need to target a few large advertisers for starters so that the rest will get the message.
It’s also time for the government controlled mass media to get the message – Malaysians are not so stupid as to swallow all your lies and spin. There’s a price to be paid for insulting our intelligence.
CHK,
Your suggestion is music to my ears.
A committee!
Come on, people, here’s a chance for you to get involved, bring your expertise to full use.
If you’re prepared to work on such a committee with CHK ( CHK, you will work on this, right? ), send an e-mail to thepeoplesparliament@gmail.com so that I can put the committee together.
Pratamad
December 21, 2007
I support this call of boycott.
However, I would like to voice my sympathy to (some of) the people working for the papers. I read Sin Chew Daily occassionally. When I read their Nov 11th (the day after Bersih rally) edition, I was extremely disgusted by the paper’s failure to report the truth, and indirectly becoming a vehicle by the government to deliver untruth. However, an interesting observation I have is that almost everyday at different columns of the paper, you would find writings of conscience, mentions of the critical state of our country’s affairs, implied messages about media control and manipulation. I can only draw the conclusion that many behind the scene in the paper are conscientious and hope to deliver their messages through the gaps. It’s a little cat and mouse play.
IMHO, they should stop pinning their hope that way and should just quit their job, for they would become indirect accomplice to the power-that-be’s media exploitative agenda.
Paul Warren
December 21, 2007
Haris can we have a letter that we could safely write to corporate advertisers of these MSM without attracting for ourselves any libelous suits? I know I am asking too much, but you are the lawyer and I do consider you a great craftsman!
Paul,
Ordinarily, flattery would get most people anywhere and everywhere.
However, time is a precious commodity which I seem tobe running short of these days.
You have my e-mail. Why don’t you start the draft, shoot it to me, I’ll re-work it and if you think it comes close to what you had in mind, we’ll put it up for people to use.
shar101
December 21, 2007
I’m in favor of VicRail’s methodology:-
Imho, it’s one way to get the message across to both the MSM AND the advertisers WITHOUT making ourselves susceptible to any legal repercussions.
For those of us who have stopped buying newspapers, this posting may have no bearing. However, for others who still do for whatever reason(s), it’s not impossible to refrain for a day in a week.
shar101
December 21, 2007
Dang! The link went missing.
It’s VicRail’s comment #6297 at 10.30pm on 29/11/07 at “Do we, the people, have it in us…..”.
kimchan
December 21, 2007
Dear Haris, I have started boycotting the MSM, perhaps more than 5 years ago. I will sign up to help getting a new MP for Segambut, and yes, I will boycott the major products advertised in the MSM.
You are God sent, Haris. I feel guilty for not being able to do more.
kimchan, we are all God-sent.
Just do what you can do.
crankshafted
December 21, 2007
Haris, I’m fully in support of boycotting the newspapers, but I like your idea of boycotting even the advertisers.
Unfortunately, I doubt they read newspapers, so they wouldn’t know they’re being boycotted. Perhaps we should somehow get it publicised through the meta-blogs and then begin the boycotting like say, from the coming year onwards – Jan 1, 2008.
There must be an impact. Also, we need to know the list of companies who do and do not advertise with The Star and NST, for instance. It gets a little tricky for products such as petrol, because almost all dailies carry some form of advertisement for this in some way or the other.
Let me know if you need me to do any research. I can be contacted at crankshafted@gmail.com
Sharing
December 21, 2007
May I take this as a topic of “What one can do”?
————-
Please excuse, not a challenge to Harris,
but a topic for lawyers to chew.
This refers again the 3 Hindraf lawyers challenging AG, Session Court, High Court, & CJ.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/12/8/nation/19704909&sec=nation
Should lawyers suggest or show how this can be done
as members of the Bar to express their concern
so that hopefully something can be done?
Such as a poll in Bar to protest
the ignoring of proper proceeding or Code of Practice?
A morning mourning of 1-2minutes somewhere in court before the morning section?
A present of Memorandum to CJ?
If 2000 or more was organized for Walk for Justice in September,
why shouldn’t a memorandum be filed by the Bar?
The 5 lawyers connected to Hindraf, victim of ISA
Hindraf, Bersih had acted.
Anything from Bar?
Australian Judge had said fair words on Religious Rights for Malaysian
Have Malaysian Bar talked fair for these 5 Malaysian Lawyers?
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/content/view/13047/27/
farida
December 21, 2007
At the heart of it all is a betrayal of trust. When the ordinary man on the street, picks up a newspaper and pays for it, he thinks he’s paying for the truth.
We know that he’s paying to be fed lies but he doesn’t know it.
We need to get through to that man on the street. We also need to get through to the advertisers that they’re linking themselves to liars, the lying companies that profess to be dispensing the truth. That makes them dumb, wanting to be associated with liars. Do they want to be seen to be dumb? Let’s ask them.
toyolbuster
December 21, 2007
I have stopped buying MSM papers for a long time now. Saved a lot and every 2 months, I get to take my family out for a real treat with the savings. But I must confess, last week, I went to chow kit to buy some fish and a whole load of seafood for a BBQ dinner. I didn’t want to dirty my car, so I bought a paper (not going to mention which one in case they do a dirty one on me) to line the boot and floor mats. I chose the page with you know who’s photo on, for my floor mat and I enjoyed stepping onto it. And the rest, went into the BBQ pit
what the
December 22, 2007
Don’t boycott the newspapers, boycott buying them, read free ones from coffee shop, news from either side we must read, even if one side is full of Bullshits
Don’t spend your hard earn money into buying shits that you will only discard at the end of the day or use it to wrap up your pet poos.
that’s my two cents worth of logic.
incidently, since I cancelled my newspaper subscription and switched to free kopitiam papers in 2003+, I believe I have saved RM 1000+ .
Surind
December 22, 2007
I support the call! Great speech at the DAP forum today 😉
Kean
December 22, 2007
There is no way you can boycott all the products advertised in the MSM because most of it had become part of your life which you CANNOT live without it!
Take a good example of gasoline. What gasoline brand will you buy if you boycott Shell, Caltex, Petronas, Mobil, BP and many more. Can your vehicle move without gasoline, I’m sure it WON’T. Even Shabas, the water company running Selangor state water supply also advertise in MSM. So, are you gonna boycott using water supply by Shabas including the tap water you use at home? Mineral water to wash cloth? Woooo even super rich people don’t do that >.< .
Like I said earlier, most of these products are part of our life and we not only WILL use them but we HAVE TO USE THEM even they are not advertise in MSM. If you gona boycott all the products advertise in MSM, then you might as well live in a cave since nearly 99% of the items around you had been advertise in MSM before.
Rather then wasting our effort on something that won’t make any impact, it is better to focus on the original item which is the newspaper itself. Why? Lets take the Star newspaper as an example.
RM1.50 per copy X 1 million copy sold per day = RM1.5 million
RM1.5 million X 30 days = RM45 million a month
RM45 million X 12 months = RM540 million a year
540 million ringgit of rough income which EXCLUDED the advertising income! IF THEIR SALE FIGURE IS 0, THEY WILL LOSE 540 MILLION RINGGIT!!! When the sale figure is 0, do you think any company will advertise in Star newspaper?? Get the idea?
When their newspaper has no more market value, no one will advertise with them because no body will bother to read it. This is what we call ‘hitting 2 birds with 1 stone’. But, how come the Sun can survive and even nourishing with their free newspaper? That is because their paper has market value. People read it because its FREE, so it help them to generate a market force to attract advertisement. Its the same concept as our free local TV channel.
In order to FULLY punish our MSM, we must not only STOP PAYING FOR IT, we must also STOP READING THEM! But can we do it? Well I don’t want to become a caveman who is totally isolated from the world. We need updated information especially in this fast moving pace era. Blogs and Internet is sure an easy source of information but newspaper still come in handy because small topics weren’t show in the Internet or on Blogs. Even Blogs also take topics and articles from our local newspapers <_.< . Right now we focus on all the paid MSM first. When we start to see the impact, then we can plan our next move on those free MSM.
Kean
December 22, 2007
There is no way you can boycott all the products advertised in the MSM because most of it had become part of your life which you CANNOT live without it!
Take a good example of gasoline. What gasoline brand will you buy if you boycott Shell, Caltex, Petronas, Mobil, BP and many more. Can your vehicle move without gasoline, I’m sure it WON’T. Even Shabas, the water company running Selangor state water supply also advertise in MSM. So, are you gonna boycott using water supply by Shabas including the tap water you use at home? Mineral water to wash cloth? Woooo even super rich people don’t do that.
Like I said earlier, most of these products are part of our life and we not only WILL use them but we HAVE TO USE THEM even they are not advertise in MSM. If you gona boycott all the products advertise in MSM, then you might as well live in a cave since nearly 99% of the items around you had been advertise in MSM before.
Rather then wasting our effort on something that won’t make any impact, it is better to focus on the original item which is the newspaper itself. Why? Lets take the Star newspaper as an example.
RM1.50 per copy X 1 million copy sold per day = RM1.5 million
RM1.5 million X 30 days = RM45 million a month
RM45 million X 12 months = RM540 million a year
540 million ringgit of rough income which EXCLUDED the advertising income! IF THEIR SALE FIGURE IS 0, THEY WILL LOSE 540 MILLION RINGGIT!!! When the sale figure is 0, do you think any company will advertise in Star newspaper?? Get the idea?
When their newspaper has no more market value, no one will advertise with them because no body will bother to read it. This is what we call ‘hitting 2 birds with 1 stone’. But, how come the Sun can survive and even nourishing with their free newspaper? That is because their paper has market value. People read it because its FREE, so it help them to generate a market force to attract advertisement. Its the same concept as our free local TV channel.
In order to FULLY punish our MSM, we must not only STOP PAYING FOR IT, we must also STOP READING THEM! But can we do it? Well I don’t want to become a caveman who is totally isolated from the world. We need updated informations especially in this fast moving pace era. Blogs and Internet is sure an easy source of information but newspaper still come in handy because small topics weren’t printed out in the Internet or on Blogs. Even Blogs also take topics and articles from our local newspapers.
So my advise is to boycott all the PAID NEWSPAPERS and only read those free one like the Sun. Why pay for lies when you can read them for free, lol. Right now we focus on all the paid MSM first. When we start to see the impact, then we can plan our next move on those free MSM.
Paul Warren
December 22, 2007
haha…I thought I could be charming. Wasted on you!…O.k. o.k. Let me set my fingures down on my keyboard and see what comes up. But not immediately though….
vanaja panickar
December 22, 2007
I stopped buying main stream newspapers many years ago who Dr.M was still PM. I was so cheesed off with the full page advertisements taken out by BN showing Tengku Razali(hope it is the correct spelling)Hamzah wearing a Kadazan head dress that depicted something that resembled a cross. That was cheap, downright degrading publicity by scums who knew that MSM were their slaves.Elections were never, ever free and fair even then.
Ever since I returned from my studies overseas, I had voted for the opposition because I believed that we need check and balance within the system. So dear Malaysians, please follow Haris’s and my advice. Stop buying MSM. Only where there is demand there will be supply. We can, if we want to, put them out of circulation.
vanaja panickar
December 22, 2007
Oh, I forgot to add, I buy such newspapers when I need to use them as “toilet paper” for my cats
K P VARAN
December 22, 2007
A long time ago, perhaps more than 15 years ago I stopped buying the Straits Times / New Straits Times; the STAR; Tamil Nesan and another tamil daily when it became too vivdly clear that these pub lications along with the erstwhile BERNAMA were the eloquent mouth pieces of the Politicians who were taking the Malaysian citizens for a ride through their rampant pillaging and looting of citizens’ funds. A ‘politician can convince you to build a bridge in the desert’ – the saying goes and our Politicians have already mastered this art. We are constantly bombarded with what we want to hear BUT with nothing happening. We are NOT told about transparency and how other countries and foreign firms look at our tender and purchase procedures; on how mammoth jobs are given to cronies and crony companies – with ‘kick backs’ of course.
Now. Lo and Behold. The 3rd Economic force in the country – the Cooperative Movement is being taken over on 1st January 2007 by a set of politicians or their cronies and that will eventually mean the death of the movement in the course of time. Two Co-operative Societies set up by the Government under the aegis of the late Tun Gaffar Baba a few years ago with Senior Government Officers as Directors of the two organisations have mysteriously vanished into the annals of dead Co-operatives. Many Co-operatives lost monies by investing in these two Co-operatives and had to wipe out the monies over a few years in their books.
The Cooperatives Commission and the powers now given to it by our Honourable Parliamentarians – whether infringing Constitutional Rights or not in any area – will be a set back for the indomitable spirit of our forefathers who built these organisations on a voluntary basis without seeking any form of payment or privileges. The Commission would of course be lavish in spending the ill gotten funds as they only have to answer to their political masters. Existing successful co-operatives will dwindle and die through the ill gotten interference by politicians and their stalwarts. Thus ends another episode in the financial woes of the citizens of Malaysia.
Sky
December 23, 2007
The last time I read any online malaysian news was during the revathy situation and when Irene Fernandez got some peace price in Sweden and not one single media picked it up. So now i turn to blogs such as yours for the real news 🙂
thank god for bloggers!