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Malaysian media under a
cloud
By Anil Netto
PENANG,
Malaysia - The increasingly limited space for serious
public discussion of the real issues in Malaysia
reflects official jitters ahead of a general election,
which is due by 2004 but widely expected to be held next
year.
In the last general election, the ruling
coalition secured support from barely half the
ethnic-Malay voters but nevertheless clinched a
two-thirds parliamentary majority in Malaysia's
first-past-the-post electoral system.
But this
time around, officials are taking no chances. From the
reporting of the haze to the introduction of English as
a medium of instruction for teaching mathematics and
science to the voices of independent thinkers on Islam,
public discourse has been limited by curbs in the
largely government-linked media and official frowns. And
that has left large sections of the population in the
dark.
Take the haze that has blanketed large
sections of Sarawak in northern Borneo in recent days as
well as parts of the peninsula. The media in peninsular
Malaysia have largely downplayed the effects of the
haze, which reached unhealthy levels.
Pictures
coming in from Sarawak this week reveal fog-like
conditions with tall buildings a few hundred meters away
barely discernible. The official silence has fed public
anxieties, and when officials do speak, they place much
of the blame elsewhere.
Ever since the last
scare in 1997-98, when the haze reached hazardous
levels, Malaysia's exact readings of the Air Pollution
Index have not been made public.
Environmental
academics, fearing disciplinary action, are reluctant to
comment in the media about the adverse effects of the
haze on public health.
Tucked away on page 8 of
a national daily on Thursday was a report saying that "a
few" hotspots were detected in Sarawak and nine of 10
monitoring stations registered poor air quality in the
state.
There has been little discussion in the
media here of the causes of these "hot spots" and how
bad the situation actually is.
It has been
reported that 1 million masks will be distributed by the
relevant government agencies, with priority to be given
to schoolchildren, institutions and people with health
problems. A strange response for a crisis that is
supposed to be under control.
Kuching, the
capital of Sarawak, is close to an area in western
Borneo identified as having slight to thick haze,
according to a Smoke Haze/Hot Spots map from Singapore's
National Environment Agency on Wednesday evening.
Although rains have brought some reprieve since then, it
is unclear how long the haze will remain.
In
recent studies, exposure to particulate pollution -
either alone or with other air pollutants - has been
linked with premature death, difficult breathing,
aggravated asthma, increased hospital admissions and
emergency-room visits, and increased respiratory
symptoms in children.
The haze of 1997, the
result of fires in Sumatra and Borneo and aggravated by
the El Nino drought, is estimated to have cost the
people of Southeast Asia some US$1.4 billion, mostly in
short-term health costs. The long-term impacts on health
of exposed children and elderly are unknown and it was
months before tourism returned to normal. That in part
explains why officials fear greater publicity about the
extent of the haze.
There are other areas where
the media here are reluctant to tread. Twenty-seven
civil-society groups are urging the county's highest
judge, Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, to call for a public
inquest into the deaths of three youths who died while
under police detention during the past three months. In
a letter submitted to him on Thursday, the groups said
an inquest was vital as there were allegations of police
brutality and misuse of power surrounding the deaths. It
is a subject that few dare to broach.
Even
something as innocuous as the government's proposal to
teach math and science using English as a medium of
instruction has been turned into something of a
"sensitive issue", with public debate not encouraged.
Educationists from all the language streams - Malay,
Mandarin and Tamil - have expressed reservations about
the proposal, arguing that it could be counterproductive
and not lead to any improvement in the standard of
English. The Chinese educationists also worry that it
could lead to a change in the character of the country's
Chinese-medium schools - something the government
insists won't happen. Such concerns could sway Chinese
electoral support for the ruling coalition.
But
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad cautioned that those
using racial sentiments to instigate the people would
face stern action. "If they continue to harp on the
issue to create anxiety among the people or get involved
in illegal activities, then we will not hesitate to take
the necessary action." Enough said.
Curbs on
free expression are felt in religious matters as well.
Any attempt to raise public awareness about Mahathir's
declaration last September that Malaysia is already an
Islamic state can run into serious problems, as
opposition politician Lim Kit Siang found out the hard
way. Lim, chairman of the multi-ethnic Chinese-based
Democratic Action Party, has been repeatedly arrested
over the past couple of months for distributing leaflets
insisting that Malaysia's constitutional status as a
secular, multi-religious country with Islam as its
official religion remains unchanged.
But there
are other groups that are upset about free expression of
views pertaining to Islam. In recent months, several
independent scholars and writers on Islam have been
chastised for expressing views that were deemed to have
"insulted" the religion. The conservative and, some say,
opposition-leaning Persatuan Ulama Malaysia (Malaysian
Ulama Association), a body of religious scholars, has
been in the forefront of these efforts to muzzle
independent voices. The result: independent scholars now
feel intimidated about expressing views that go beyond
the permissible range of politicized discourse.
As if such curbs on free expression are not
enough, plans are afoot to set up a Media Council and
introduce a Code of Conduct for journalists to ensure
self-regulation of the press in Malaysia.
Self-regulation in principle would have been
fine in a more liberal context - after all, the
principal objective of most media councils elsewhere,
apart from self-regulation, is to defend and promote
press freedom.
But what worries press-freedom
activists here when plans for the media council are
discussed is that there has been little official talk of
expanding press freedom. Thus, the fear is that a
proposed media council would only add another layer of
control over the media, in addition to repressive laws
such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the
Official Secrets Act, and the Internal Security Act.
Activists and journalists also fear that the media
council will be used to shackle alternative, independent
and opposition journalism including that over the
Internet.
Behind the most pressing current
issues of the day, it is the freedom of expression - or
the lack thereof - that is proving to be the stumbling
block in the way of a more informed citizenry, ready to
face the challenges posed by globalization and political
Islam.
Despite its stronger position
post-September 11, the Mahathir administration is
obviously not taking any chances. By discouraging
independent voices, it appears intent on stemming any
further erosion in support ahead of what is expected to
be a hotly contested general election soon.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
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