Alternative media running amok for no rhyme or reason

by Joe Fernandez

COMMENT It's not surprising that malaysiakini has incurred the renewed displeasure of Umno Government supporters in the wake of GE13 on 505. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/231538, http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/231652

Aug 2010, to the best of my recollection, is the month malaysiakini did an about turn in its "making a difference for the better" editorial policy and began emulating the racist Malay media like Utusan Malaysia to degenerate into mindless rhetoric and polemics, often downright news manufacturing under the guise of straight news reporting, instead of contributing in a healthy manner like before to the debate. Janji Di Capati!

Going back and forth between trouble-creators, instigating or provoking them in the process, is not journalism. Journalism is following the news as it happens, not making things up. Why canai or goreng stories, adding sambal and belacan? We have better things to do in this country than indulge in endless politicking.

An example is shameless Anwar Ibrahim apologist Terence Netto writing a story alleging that Hindraf Makkal Sakthi chairman and Deputy Minister-designate P. Waythamoorthy was maintaining an ominous silence on the death of a Dharmendran in police custody.  http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/231260

The May 27 story, complete with quotes in Netto's highly indisciplined language, but attributed to Opposition MP Kulasegaran, was obviously an attempt to blacken Waytha's image as much as possible. Pakatan Rakyat (PR) still seems to be smarting from the Hindraf leader's move to sign a non-political Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barisan Nasional (BN) on the eve of 505.  http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/231592

In fact, Waytha did issue a stern statement on the incident on May 23 i.e. before the so-called Kula story. It was carried in Free Malaysia Today whose senior journalists were once with malaysiakini before they were hounded out of existence one by one. https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/05/23/lame-excuses-from-the-cops/

Hindraf has an important role to play in Barisan Nazional, for want of a better term, re-inventing itself and re-emerging as Barisan Nasional through every component party in the coalition opening its doors to all races.

Hindraf activists, for example, could join Umno if they are interested in politics and strive to change the racist party from within to accept that there must be no deviations and distortions in the implementation of Articles 153 and 3 of the Federal Constitution and the New Economic Policy, among others.

Needless to say the onus is on Hindraf, as 3rd Force allies of Sabah and Sarawak, to ensure that the parti parti Malaya keep out of Sabah and Sarawak in line with the Malaysia Agreement.

The most dangerous trend in malaysiakini is to hype up the rhetoric and polemics on a particular issue for no rhyme or reason until things reach an explosive point.

A case in point is an ex-Judge citing the Federal Constitution to state that government schools must be in the Malay medium. What the Judge seemed to be suggesting was that the Government stop financing Tamil and Chinese schools. Of course, the Judge could have better articulated his presentation.

malaysiakini mindlessly went to town with the ex-Judge's remarks just as they did before GE13 with remarks by Mahathir, Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa and Zulkifli Noordin. The more the trio opened their mouths under malaysiakini's insatiable hunger for rhetoric and polemics, the worse for the BN if not Umno in Malaya.

Again, rhetoric and polemics is what malaysiakini is all about.

Good bullshit we can understand. At least, if for nothing else, it's entertaining.

But malaysiakini is just plain bad bullshit and it's getting to be more than boring and certainly dangerous.

They seem to begrudge giving even a little space to Sabah and Sarawak -- even for carrying Kaamatan and Gawai Dayak greetings on May 30/31 and June 1/2 respectively --  although these two nations will decide the future of politics in Malaysia. Witness the fact that PR obtained 80 parliamentary seats in Malaya and nine in Borneo, and BN obtained 85 parliamentary seats in Malaya and 48 in Borneo.

I can speak with some authority on the subject. I used to be the Sabah correspondent for malaysiakini from 2008. This was despite myself telling them in 2000 that they were not functioning like how an alternative media should, apparently toeing the dictates of its then known foreign backers and investors, and ticking them off for exploiting Indian journalists as cheap labour.

While it lasted, I seemed to have a carte blanc to publish anything in malaysiakini and Sabah and Sarawak got some space. Anything I contributed was uploaded within minutes. Of course, these were all initially non-political stories.

But it was not until Jan 2011 that I received an email from Editor in Chief Steven Gan laying out the new "more exciting" editorial policy.

Subsequently, malaysiakini first banned me from writing on PKR, next Dap, then Sapp, and thereafter on Jeffrey Kitingan and Hindraf Makkal Sakthi. I was banned from writing about Hindraf after P. Uthayakumar accused malaysiakini and Steven of being racists for not highlighting Indian issues especially deaths in police custody. (I notice that malaysiakini has begun carrying Uthaya's stories of late and  giving space to deaths in police custody.)

malaysiakini's agenda was clear: no adverse reporting on Pakatan Rakyat and no space to be given to any movement from Sabah and Sarawak towards a 3rd Force in the Malaysian Parliament or any alliance between Hindraf and Sabah, Sarawak activists. All that was deemed to be counterproductive for PR.

Finally, they placed a moratorium – whatever it means -- on my political stories for malaysiakini. I was not in the mood to go back immediately to writing non-political stories although I began with malaysiakini as a non-political writer. The political situation was building up towards 505.

malaysiakini, the last I know, also did not pay a lawyer who defended it and me in Sabah on a defamation case. The malaysiakini lawyer has only collected RM 1, 000 so far.

I prepared the entire case myself under the oversight of the lawyer who appeared in Court for us and worked out an out-of-court settlement with the concurrence of malaysiakini. The lawyer decided that I could present the case better in print. He stuck to authorities i.e. looking for the law and pointing it out to the Court and citing decided cases for principles.

I advised the lawyer, on behalf of malaysiakini, to file contempt of Court charges against the other side and the Court, as a result, struck out the case without a hearing. malaysiakini was upset over the contempt of Court filing and took the view that I had “exceeded” the bounds of my authority.

It seems that as in the Taib case, they rather cringe, crawl and grovel sadistically before the other side and apologise profusely in the local media and malaysiakini. The website is only brave when running stories. If someone sues them, they will run here and there like a chicken with its head cut off, shitting in their pants.


Expanding from the moratorium, malaysiakini decided not to upload my stories until the lawyer's bill was settled. What they meant is that I had to pay half the bill. This is unprecedented in world history, a publisher dumping the legal bill on a reporter instead of accepting the full responsibility as was the industry norm. No reporter will work for a publisher in that case.

After deciding that I should pay half the legal expenses, malaysiakini decided to cringe, crawl and grovel before the lawyer for a discount for their so-called half of the bill. One sob story they gave the lawyer was that legal firms in Kuala Lumpur were willing to handle their cases free. Why didn't they point out that I prepared the case myself and therefore they should get a big discount? Instead, they told me to lay off and that they will handle the lawyer themselves from Kuala Lumpur. The lawyer was firm: "no discounts can be considered until they accepted the principle that they are responsible for the entire bill as agreed from the very beginning."


malaysiakini's stand that I should pay half the legal bill does not hold water for two other reasons: (a) the Board of Directors gave a letter to the Court admitting that the story uploaded and which became an issue in Court was not what I emailed them. They wrote their own headline and mucked around here and there with the contents. In the language of the Court, I was not the Author of the story. I did not have to produce my original emailed story as it was privileged communication; (2) why should I pay any part of the bill when I prepared almost the entire case myself? In fact, both the lawyer and malaysiakini should pay me.

Over a period of four years, I produced at least one story daily, sometimes two, for malaysiakini. I don't see them thanking me even once or expressing gratitude. They take everybody for granted.

I was hoping that sanity would return to malaysiakini after GE13. No such luck since the politicking in the country continues and provides even more cannon fodder for malaysiakini. Even so, it did publish my pieces earlier this year on the Royal Commission of Inquiry in Sabah and other issues.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/219442, http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/219964, http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/220024, http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/222048, http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/222853,

We don't need an online version of the mainstream media from the Opposition angle.

The rot in malaysiakini began when Pakatan Rakyat leaders, especially one who thinks that he's god's gift to politics -- not Anwar Ibrahim -- began influencing the online news portal's editorial policy in the wake of Jeffrey's departure from PKR.

There's public suspicion that many malaysiakini reporters are on the take. Such perceptions, in any case, go with the job.

In line with the new editorial policy, a "racist" editor in malaysiakini allegedly began getting rid of the online news portal's Indian journalists. Perhaps they could now afford to pay more and no longer wanted cheap labour. They cannot afford to be stingy with non-Indians and get away with it. Those victimised, exploited for so long as cheap labour, have their own stories to tell.

Now, there appears to be moves afoot within the Najib Administration to act against malaysiakini.

If the Government can succeed with this move, the country can avoid the prospect of the people, especially the Malays, turning against each other. This is no exaggeration.

If any action is taken against malaysiakini over its editorial policy and direction, similar action must be taken against Utusan Malaysia.

However, while Utusan Malaysia has been a miserable failure in that the Malays are turning against it, malaysiakini has succeeded, and that's another reason to incur the wrath of Umno and the racist Malay media.

FMT, known to be run by moneybags who claim links with Daim Zainuddin, is no better. They wanted me to whack the shit out of PR.

malaysia chronicle is under the direction of the Chinese in Parti Keadilan Rakyat. They once rewrote a Jeffrey Kitingan piece that I did for them at their request. Black came out as white and white came out as black. The greys were removed. That was the first and last Jeffrey piece I did for them. They wanted me to whack the shit out of BN and the Kitingans. Obviously, they think that Sabah is their grandfather's property!

Malaysia Today, financed by moneybags linked to Umno warlords, is into post-GE13 bullshit to disorient and confuse non-Malay politics.

It must reckon that all Chinese are stupid. The Chinese can buy MT at a loss and sell it at a profit.

In a bizarre post-505 claim recently, MT said that Umno, BN and the Malays were light years ahead of the Indians and Chinese in politics. I suppose MT couldn't resist exposing its stupidity in this manner. Sometimes, one can be one's own worst enemy.

MT removed my login recently, insist that my comments be first screened by their so-called administrators, and no longer use my articles and now, it seems, my comments as well are no longed published. Others seem to have a licence to post their comments, unmoderated, complete with vulgarities.

This was after I posted an unmoderated comment identifying the moneybags who financed their so-called study on the ground conducted a year before GE13.

Daim Zainuddin's forecast of the GE13, indeed so-called prophecy, was based on the outcome of a year-long study.

I told Malaysia Today in my comment that I forecast the GE13 results, the cheating excluded, without being financed by any moneybag. The only error I made was that PKR, on the wave of a two-party/coalition system, collected the seats in Sabah which I had expected to fall to Star.

Daim’s concern, behind the MT hype, is understandable. The corporate sector has been contributing heavily to the Umno/BN coffers for GE purposes. The Opposition is making every GE an increasingly expensive outing for Umno/BN. Henceforth, the corporate sector would probably refuse to contribute even a sen to the ruling coalition. Umno is already in big trouble financially because of GE13.

MT doesn’t want to hear that Umno/BN is also in trouble on two other fronts: (1) the veterans and young Malaysians, especially Malays, who find themselves left out as candidates by a small clique in the ruling coalition are flocking to the Opposition; and (2) fewer and fewer Malays are registering themselves as voters and even when they do, they don’t turn up to vote because they see it as an exercise in futility.

Raja Petra Kamaruddin no longer seems to be in control of MT. He didn't seem to mind publishing things that he didn't agree with.

Other online news portals and Blogs are linked to various political parties on both sides of the political divide.

Their common enemy is the emergence of a Borneo-based 3rd Force in the Malaysian Parliament. Why should the people of Borneo be held to ransom by a struggle for power in Malaya?

No alternative media is truly free, fair and independent.

In that sense, they are no better than the mainstream media.

Again, while the mainstream media has been an appalling failure in recent years, the alternative media has had some dubious success to the alarm of Umno.