MEDIA-MALAYSIA: Editors Tiptoe Around a Touchy Government

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Anil Netto

PENANG, Malaysia, May 7 1998 (IPS) - Besieged by a confluence of economic and environmental woes, the Malaysian government is becoming anxious about “negative” media reports that it says damages chances for a quick recovery.

As a result, the Malaysian press has had to pick its way through a maze of sensitive subjects and words that government officials want it to avoid.

A most troublesome word of late has been the “haze” over the skies of Malaysia and neighbouring countries, which are seeing a recurrence of the problem due to forest fires raging in Borneo island.

But officials argued last month that the use of the word “haze” is wrong and stirs unnecessary concern. Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding declared: “We do not have any haze”.

This was so because the air quality index throughout the country was between good and moderate, Law told startled Malaysians. Visibility was sometimes low because of high moisture content in the air, but this was not haze, he said.

Law’s remarks were carried in ‘The Star’ newspaper on Apr. 30, right next to a report stating that the state government in Pahang had ordered a probe into “hazy conditions” after winds blew smoke from peat fires to the outskirts of Kuantan, the state capital.

For many newspaper editors, “haze” was just the latest addition to a growing list of ‘alarmist’ terms they have been studiously avoiding in order not to run afoul of the government.

Other taboo terms include ‘smog’, ‘economic meltdown’, and ‘bail-outs’. Recently, a Malaysian official said the frequent use of the word ‘crisis’ in relation to Asia, including his country, smacked of Western bias.

As Malaysia’s economic slide continues and with the Commonwealth Games approaching on Sep. 11, the government appears to be more and more concerned about unflattering reports in the local media reaching foreign ears.

“They are getting very jittery,” said Zaharom Nain, a university lecturer specialising in media and communication.

When the British media recently published reports alleging that illegal immigrants in detention camps here were poisoned, Malaysia’s top police officer accused it of practising “journalistic vandalism”.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused an unidentified local non-governmental organisation of feeding false information to the British media. But he later appeared to backtrack when he said the NGO would not be prosecuted due to lack of evidence.

Apart from economic woes expected to cut Malaysia’s GDP growth to 3.5 percent this year from 7.5 percent in 1997, the country is also grappling with a drought and serious water shortage that are fueling public resentment.

Yet often, the pressures on the media make it difficult for it to air public grievances, and make them wary of getting into trouble with the government.

In the north Borneo state of Sabah, fires have razed forests, killed crops and dried rivers up. Nearly 20,000 families from 627 villages need food aid as the drought now enters its fifth month, reports say.

Water rationing has hit large parts of Kuala Lumpur. Yet media reports on the rationing are skimming the surface, says Tan, a senior features writer with an English-language daily, who asked to be identified only by her surname. Certain areas are already into the third or fourth month of water rationing, she added.

Said Tan: “People are very angry. But the media is supposed to play down any issue that might affect the economy and the Commonwealth Games.”

“Right now, there’s a lot of self-censorship,” agreed Zaharom. “Editors are saying, ‘We must provide good news’.”

News reports of the Mar. 26 riots at the Semenyih detention camp holding illegal immigrants, mostly from Indonesia, were carried on the front pages of some local newspapers. But Zaharom says sub-editors in one English daily were told to carry the report deep in the inside pages.

Mahathir is also clearly unhappy about news reports of bail- outs and of dubious investments in the stock market by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). The EPF, a compulsory retirement fund for workers, recently announced its lowest annual dividend in 22 years to contributors, many of them from the working class.

“It is a fact. People are very, very unhappy,” said Tan. But editors got the message and played down the sensitive issue, she added.

Tan suspects the authorities fear that local press reports will be picked up by the foreign media. But they forget that regional magazines are far more critical, she points out. “We (the local media) are just an easy scapegoat.”

One development that did reach the foreign media was the rescue of haulier Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad, a debt-laden firm owned by Mahathir’s son, Mirzan.

Funds from national oil firm Petronas are expected to be channeled through the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation (MISC), which is buying KPB’s shipping assets for 220 million dollars. MISC would then become a 62 percent subsidiary of Petronas.

Critics judged it a bail-out, but the local mainstream media refused to look at the deal from that angle. “They (the local media) have got no backbone,” said Zaharom. “They are spineless in many ways.”

He added he was “getting bored” because once Mahathir says something, all the other ministers start talking about the same thing. “Suddenly, there’s a chorus,” he remarked.

Dr Mustafa Anuar, an academic, calls this “cue journalism”. Cue journalism was in evidence in March, when news of a communal disturbance involving Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus in Penang was suppressed.

It was only when senior government officials started issuing statements to the press, days after the unrest first flared, that the press began carrying reports about the violence.

“Some of the boundaries are self-created,” said Ong, a journalist with another English-language daily, whose article about the police stopping a recent rally by victims of child labour, was spiked.

“After a while, you kind of know where the boundaries are,” she explained. Still, she adds, these limits can be tested and pushed farther back. Despite laws that control the press and restrictive patterns of media ownership, Zaharamon says, space can be made for critical views.

“Somehow, unfortunately, most journalists do not seem to do anything to expand the parameters,” Zaharom added. “We have a docile bunch of journalists with a subservient feudal mentality.”