Demonising Malaysiakini
fairplay.
Malaysiakini
Friday February 16
Demonising Malaysiakini
Steven Gan
1:13pm, Fri: Those who watch TV1 news would notice by now
that there is a special slot recently on malaysiakini every
evening. These reports would make Nazi propaganda master
Joseph Goebbels proud. They were laced with quotes taken out
of context, fabrications and downright lies.
Take, for example, yesterday's report. It said I wrote a
false story on the deaths of 59 detainees in the Semenyih
immigrants camp near Kajang, Selangor. Instead, said the
report, there were only eight deaths including that of a
police officer.
Alas, TV1 was talking about two different events.
True, in 1998, there was a riot in Semenyih as the
authorities moved to deport thousands of Indonesians. The
violence began when the police launched a simultaneous
operation to round up detainees from Indonesia's troubled
province of Aceh in four camps for repatriation. By the time
calm was restored, nine people - eight Indonesians and one
police officer - were dead, and dozens injured.
I was then working for the English-language newspaper The
Nation in Bangkok, and did not cover the violent
deportations.
The story that I did cover, however, was in 1995 when I was
working for The Sun. Together with two colleagues - Selvi
Gopal and Umah Papachan - we unearthed the deaths of 59
detainees in Semenyih. They died of beri-beri - a symptom of
malnutrition - and typhoid, diseases which are easily
preventable. We pointed out that this was a case of criminal
neglect on the part of the police who ran the camp. The
story was spiked by The Sun editors hours before it went to
print.
When it appeared that the paper was not going to run the
story, the team decided to hand the information over to
Tenaganita, an NGO which supports migrant workers. It wasn't
until Tenaganita exposed the deaths at a press conference -
and these deaths were confirmed by the government - that the
newspaper had the courage to run the story, but only after
four revisions.
Deaths confirmed
Soon after Tenaganita's revelations, then deputy home
minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob confirmed there had been 42
deaths in Semenyih. At least 10 died of beri-beri, a
nutritional deficiency disease resulting from lack of
vitamin B1. Beri-beri, said the Malaysia Medical
Association, is an easily treatable disease and unheard of
in the country since World War II.
Later, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in an answer to a
question in Parliament, said that 98 detainees had died at
immigration depots, of which 43 were in Semenyih.
The government reacted swiftly by setting up a
semi-independent board to investigate the conditions in the
camps and ordered the Health Ministry to administer vitamin
B1 pills to detainees to curb beri-beri.
But that was not the end of the story.
Two months after the exposure, the whistle-blower,
Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez, was subsequently
arrested for spreading "false news" under the Printing
Presses and Publications Act - a law originally used to
muzzle the press. The Act stipulates that any publication
which have been found to have "maliciously published any
false news, the printer, publisher, editor and the writer
shall be guilty of an offence". Those who wrote the story
were also interrogated by the police for three days.
Why PPPA? That was because Fernandez sent, yes, a memorandum
to key ministers to alert them of widespread abuse, torture,
denial of proper medical care, lack of food and water,
widespread disease, and deaths in the detention camps.
Fernandez's six-page document was by no stretch of the
imagination considered a publication. But that did not deter
the authorities from pursuing the case against her, and she
is currently facing trial. If found guilty, she could be
sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment.
Fernandez went to trial in 1996 and hers became the longest
criminal trial in Malaysian legal history. Five years on,
there is still no end in sight.
'Don't be ashamed'
At the Malaysian Press Institute's Journalism Awards 1996,
Mahathir told the 700 journalists who attended the gala
event to behave themselves. He said Malaysians should not be
unduly ashamed of laws which curtail their freedom of
expression.
"Are we ashamed that there is no freedom of the press in
this country?" he asked. "Do we, forever, have to apologise
to the rest of the world for our laws? Could it be, perhaps,
that we are right and they are wrong?"
Later that night, he presented a number of awards to
journalists picked by a panel of veteran journalists for
their outstanding news reports. One of the winners was
"Shattered Dreams" - the report about the deaths of
immigrants in the detention camps, a story originally
considered unfit for publication.
But despite the irony of the award, Malaysian journalists
have yet to prove Mahathir wrong. Especially given the
sloppy journalism, no, invidious propaganda, one sees on
national TVs and certain mainstream media in recent weeks.
Taikohtai
version of events - DEEP DEEP Denials, although they all know the truth!
They want the public to believe their 'version' of events. Classic case of
the stealing police putting all the blame on a suspect with a record.
They just can't tell the simple truth these days - just like their leader
with all sorts of lies about those who dare to speak out against their
multitude of corrupt activities, manipulations and outrageous dipping into
the honey jars!
Now they want you to believe that they want the truth about Perwaja to be
unveiled all along - just when the lid is about to burst open and the can of
worms opened for all to see!! Too late, Barisan!!
Taikoh
"fairplay." <fair...@hiwaay.net> wrote in message
news:3A8D50CB...@hiwaay.net...
mellon
> Malaysiakini
>
> Friday February 16
>
> Demonising Malaysiakini
>
> Steven Gan
>
> 1:13pm, Fri: Those who watch TV1 news would notice by now
> that there is a special slot recently on malaysiakini every
> evening. These reports would make Nazi propaganda master
> Joseph Goebbels proud. They were laced with quotes taken out
> of context, fabrications and downright lies.
I watched that news. It left me with a feeling of disgust.
Not long ago, Mahathir was lamenting how he had
accepted to see Asianweek journalists in good faith
but they printed some negative stuff about him.
Malaysiakini had also probably invited the RTM crew
into their office in good faith. They walked in looking
so superior. As if they were so morally upright. Those
stupid bosses' balls licking maggots. The report
was biased and caustic and totally lacked objectivity.
After airing that pack of lies, they showed Nik Aziz
commenting that RTM's reporting had been positive
the last two weeks in order to give some credibility
to the piece of shit that they just aired.