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Media: Casualty in Malaysia's war on
terror?
By Anil Netto
PENANG,
Malaysia - One of the biggest casualties in the war on
terror is the healthy skepticism that journalists and
the media are supposed to display when reporting on
official statements as to the extent of the terror
network in the region.
On Wednesday, it was
reported in the Malaysian media that another four
alleged militants were arrested last week in the
southern state of Johor, just north of Singapore. Three
of them are allegedly members of the so-called Malaysian
Militants Group (KMM) and are allegedly part of a
suicide bombers' group with alleged links to Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI), which has alleged links with al-Qaeda.
The fourth was reported to be a Singaporean JI member
whose two brothers were arrested last year in Malaysia
for alleged terrorist activities.
The point is
no one can be sure what kind of terrorist network there
is out there or how extensive it is. Though the
mainstream media are also at a loss, they seem content
to accept at face value what the authorities or those
claiming to be terrorism experts tell them. There is
little hard evidence presented to the public to back up
those claims.
The three detained in Malaysia
last week - a settler in an agricultural area, a farmer
and a company general worker - apparently had plans to
carry out attacks on key installations in Singapore,
including a water pipeline from Johor to the republic, a
radar installation, the US Embassy and the Causeway.
Strangely, the Wednesday edition of the
top-selling English-language daily, The Star, did not
mention whether the detainees had been arrested under
the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA). In fact, the
shocking report of the arrests of the alleged members of
the suicide bombers' team was consigned to page 3 of the
daily. In the past, when some 70-odd alleged KMM members
were arrested, it was specifically mentioned that they
were detained under the Internal Security Act and their
names were also provided.
The
fact that an individual has been detained under the
ISA is relevant from a human-rights perspective, as
the ISA allows indefinite detention without trial. But so
far, none of the mainstream media - local or foreign
wire services - have seen fit to raise this issue when
reporting the latest arrests. In the past, some ISA detainees
and ex-detainees have complained of sleep deprivation,
solitary confinement, poor diet, and relentless
interrogation.
On September 6, the Federal Court
declared that the detention of several political
activists under the ISA in April 2001 was mala
fide (made in bad faith). In November, a High Court
judge ordered the release of an alleged militant,
observing that "no testimonies could confirm that the
police authorities in [this] case had applied an
objective test". The suspect was, however, promptly
rearrested a day later. (See Malaysia's lopsided
policies, November 15.)
Reports from
the region also routinely and unquestioningly report
that suspects have "confessed" to various terrorist
activities or have links to a wider terrorism network.
Those detained under security laws are vulnerable to
long, harsh interrogation. In the best of times, media
in countries with a democratic tradition would be a
little more circumspect in reporting on confessions
obtained in situations where suspects do not have legal
representation, where they are denied access to family,
and where such confessions may have been obtained under
duress.
Had the media been more critical, they
would have been asking some pertinent questions: If the
suspects confessed to involvement with terrorist
activities, why can't they be formally charged and tried
in court and - if they are really guilty - convicted and
sentenced?
When it comes to the war on terror,
it seems that such caution in reporting is easily thrown
out of the window. Those among the older generation in
Malaysia may remember the grotesque sight of detainees
being forced to confess over national television to
their alleged involvement in communism in the 1960s and
1970s.
In the treatment of terror suspects in
custody, a key point that the media have failed to
investigate is: Have there been breaches of the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly in 1984, and which came into
force in 1987? In other words, have terror suspects been
tortured mentally or physically to induce confessions?
Article 2 is worth remembering: "No exceptional
circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a
threat of war, internal political instability or any
other public emergency, may be invoked as a
justification of torture."
It is illuminating to
identify the Southeast Asian nations that have so far
ratified the Convention Against Torture. Only three out
of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations have either acceded or ratified the convention:
Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines. That says a lot
about the region's overall abhorrence of torture.
One can understand the Malaysian mainstream
media's reluctance to ask such searching questions -
they are, after all, owned or controlled by the ruling
coalition and their friends. The Paris-based Reporters
Without Borders has ranked Malaysia in 110th position
out of 139 countries surveyed for their degree of press
freedom. But what to make of the wire services and the
foreign media's parroting of official statements?
At a time when some governments across the world
are exploiting the war on terror for their own ends, it
is not too much to expect the media to display a
healthier dose of skepticism toward official statements.
Demands from rights groups for the detainees to
be charged in court have been systematically blacked out
in the media. The media should rather be highlighting
such requests, as court proceedings would provide harder
evidence of the real extent of the terrorism network.
Informed by court testimony from both prosecution and
defense witnesses, the media - and the public - would be
in a better position to gauge if fears that Malaysia is
a terrorist "haven" are justified.
(©2002 Asia
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