IT’S been all about Bersih 3.0 this past week. Stories, tweets, photographs and videos have been shared. And numerous reports have been published by the national press. And yet, anybody reading just the national print media would be left with an incomplete picture of one of the most historic moments in Malaysia’s political development. Ding Jo-Ann shows how the press in Malaysia failed readers in their coverage of Bersih 3.0.
Commentary
Can’t we trust our mahasiswa?
IT has been almost six months since the Court of Appeal in a landmark ruling declared it unconstitutional to prohibit university students from supporting or opposing political parties under the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA). On 9 April 2012, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin finally tabled amendments to the UUCA, Private Higher […]
Malaysia 2.0 – A case study
EVEN as the Health Ministry assures Malaysians that the 1Care healthcare reform plan is not yet finalised, its minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai responds defensively to critics. Even as the Election Commission (EC) agrees to use indelible ink and to relax postal voting restrictions, its chairperson wants to forbid non-taxpaying overseas Malaysians from voting. […]
Remembering Raja Aziz Addruse
EVERYTHING I know that’s worth knowing about human rights, I learnt from Raja Aziz Addruse. As the world commemorated International Human Rights Day on 10 Dec, I found myself remembering this amazing man, all he taught me, and all he left behind after his passing five months ago. Raja Aziz was, and still is, a […]
Who is proselytising?
A FEW weeks ago, I took an English friend to visit the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur before the zohor prayers. At the entrance, my friend, a practising Christian from the Church of England, was given a purple robe to wear — I assume because he was wearing knee-length shorts and I was in full-length […]
Taking cheap shots
ANYONE familiar with the UK Riots and the Bersih rally would have been gobsmacked by Malaysian politicians comparing the two in gloating fashion recently. According to no less than our prime minister, the UK Riots apparently justify the Malaysian government’s actions in stopping the Bersih rally. Datuk Seri Najib Razak reportedly said the government wanted […]
Bersih: Whom does media serve?
IN 2001, after three years of investigations and interviewing hundreds of journalists, leading media practitioners Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel wrote The Elements of Journalism, now a reference point for what is good journalism. One of Kovach and Rosenstiel’s principles was that a journalist’s first loyalty is to citizens. Not its owners, advertisers or even […]
Bersih: It’s not about black or white
TO go yellow or not to go yellow? This seems to be the question among Malaysians these days. In cyberspace, Malaysians of all backgrounds are writing, forwarding and sharing comments and articles about the planned 9 July Bersih 2.0 march. But what exactly are people saying about the ideas and principles behind the march itself? […]
How Sarawakians became Malaysians
THE normative story of Malaysia goes something like this: in 1961, the newly independent Federation of Malaya’s Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, suggested the formation of a wider federation. This would consist of Malaya, Singapore, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah. Malayans and Singaporeans agreed, but Sabahans and Sarawakians were not wholly convinced. Neighbouring Philippines objected, asserting […]
Building Malaysia in London
IS the Federal Constitution secular or Islamic? Are the prime minister’s New Economic Model and Government Transformation Programme all they are cracked up to be? And what about corruption in Malaysia? Big questions, these, with discussions amongst politicians often ending up bitter, polemical and unyielding. Not to mention the name-calling, character assassinations and government muzzling […]
