Malaysian Journalism in the Doldrums

by Dr Johan Saravanamuttu

�It is trite but true that one cannot lose anything which one has never possessed nor appreciate a loss which one has never known, possessed or experienced. This is an essay on one such precious loss � the freedom of the press�

Francis T. Seow (The Media Entralled, Lynne Rienner, 1998)

In the Doldrums

Malaysian journalism has been not so much in a state of crisis as it has been in the doldrums for a long while. Most of us are acutely aware of how this has come about but would find it hard to suggest a way out of the impasse. I believe, however that certain recent developments augur well for Malaysian journalism to lift itself out of its ignominy.

A glimpse into the past tells us that Malaysian journalism�s history was never an illustrious or happy one. Often too much is made of a supposedly golden era of journalism, sometime during the British presence and early years of independence, when, it is contended, journalists, schooled in the British tradition, evinced some of the timeless values of the �Fourth Estate� in the various newspapers in which they worked.

As a young journalist with the Straits Times Press stable of papers in the late 1960s, I sensed little of that exalted tradition. Of course one did find in the likes of a Leslie Hoffman, Tan Siew Ee, Samad Ismail, MGG Pillai, Syed Dahari, Ambrose Khaw, Felix Abishigenagan and others, certain individualistic attributes that were worth emulation.

But, even in those days, the cloak of self-censorship was much in evidence, as I recall. Political writing was closely monitored and assigned selectively by the editors and often heavily �subbed�. The leader writers, ensconced behind their glass cubicles, wrote editorials carefully slanted not to displease the powers-that-be. Nor would they stray too far into forbidden territory.

This notwithstanding, it wasn�t until after the May 13, 1969 event that a mortal blow was dealt to journalism in the form of the Sedition Act. Thenceforth, the cloak of self-censorship shrouded all of Malaysian journalism.

Some of the �old timers� and younger idealists went on to join the Singapore Herald in July 1971. This appeared to be a valiant attempt to launch an independent-minded daily albeit in the heart of a deeply authoritarian state. Here, the journalists soon met perhaps a worse fate � the sword of Damocles, wielded by the PAP government.

Within the span of less than a year, the Herald was hounded, battered and destroyed. It was hauled on the carpet for so-called �black operations� and anti-government stances and pilloried into non-existence because of its foreign financial backing.

Charter2000 alludes to the debilitating laws that govern media space and freedom. Worse perhaps is the capacity of governments to enforce and deploy with impunity a deadly surveillance over the Press even without the use of such laws. The culture of self-censorship has not only flourished in the ensuing years following May 13, 1969. It was further refurbished with Operation Lalang, in 1987, when the media was again muzzled by the authorities because of our supposed twice-proven lack of ethnic probity.

What is to be Done?

If the mainstream press stays defeated, pacified or cowed, a new vanguard of press freedom must be found. And, fortuitiously, there has been a development growing out of the throes of reformasi politics. This has been the use of the Internet for political protest, mobilization and everyday forms of resistance to the Mahathir regime.

One of its most salutary developments has been the revival of the Fourth Estate in cyberspace. They say nature abhors a vacuum. In the absence of any decent journalism from the mainstream, we are now seeing the flowering of a radical independence of mind and journalistic fearlessness emanating from the non-mainstream cyber media. Mind you, there�s still much naivet� in the Internet; the sites are legion and many have shut down or failed but the overall picture is an uplifting one.

And all of this did not get into full swing until the mainstream press lost ground to an emerging alternative Malay Press in such publications as Harakah, Eksklusif, Detik, Tamadun and a host of other mosquito operations. To his utter discredit, the Home Minister deemed it fit to close down some of these regular publications.

Harakah�s story is now legend � a party �organ� that hit the stratosphere with a circulation over 300,000 in its heyday in 1999. The government has forced since the twice-weekly paper to publish only twice a month. I�m convinced that the energy of the closed publications is now finding its way into the Internet.

The other egregious development no doubt has been �malaysia-kini.com�, which appeared on the scene in 1999. This independent and professionally run cyber news portal now boasts daily visitors of well above 100,000. Malaysiakini has become the alternative to the mainstream English Press, and to a lesser extent, the Malay Press. A Chinese version of malaysiakini may also be in the offing.

Yet even a cyber newspaper is not free from the long arms of government surveillance, control and manipulation. It should remain vigilant always and maintain a balance in its coverage of news and critical commentary. There is also the opposite danger that it becomes too open a forum and loses its distinctiveness.

Clearly, a vanguard of sorts for an alternative press has been born in cyberspace. This is by no means a fully satisfactory situation. Until Malaysian citizens are ready to usher in a new Malaysian government, with enough gumption, foresight and vision to allow the Fourth Estate its rightful, legitimate role in the social and political life of citizens, press freedom will remain illusive and ephemeral.

Johan was a professor of political science in a local university and is now based in Toronto.