In Defence of Weekend Mail’s Right to Publish:
Public need not the Minister to decide what to read
Writers’ Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI) criticizes the Internal Security Ministry’s decision to suspend Weekend Mail for publishing in last weekend pictures and stories ‘contrary to Eastern values’. This is pathetically the fourth newspaper suspended in the year 2006. We renew the civil society’s call on May 3 earlier this year for the establishment of a Parliamentary Select Committee to review all media-related laws including the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA). Once again shown in this episode, the law has given the Minister unchecked power to suppress the freedoms of expression and of the media.
While we may not agree with the tabloid’s taste and judgment, we vigorously stand up for their right to publish and the public’s right to critique their content, and against the state’s arbitrary power to dictate our journalism and cultural life. The Ministry cited sub-section 6(2) of the PPPA to justify the suspension while the sub-section says nothing but the absolute power of the Minister who ‘may at any time revoke or suspend a permit for any period he considers desirable’.
The parliament-made law provides neither specific definition nor any objective test for contents that may be considered ‘contrary to Eastern values’. Simply because we treasure our cultural heritages, we believe that no single politician has either the ability or the right to define or defend the degree of civility and decency in our society. Debating and converging on the standards for cultural appropriateness is the duty and the right of every concerned citizen. The tabloid’s prompt apology in fact has shown the power of public opinion. Surrendering now the decision to few political elites will destroy our society’s moral judgment and undermine our cultural soul.
On this principled ground, we firmly defend the right of the Weekend Mail to publish and express our solidarity to its suspended editor Mohd Zulkifli Abdul Jalil. We may not share his taste and judgment. It’s exactly our right to disagree with him we are now steadfastly defending. Mr Minister, we can choose for ourselves what to read and what not to. Your job is now to help establish a Parliamentary Select Committee to review all outdated media laws made under outdated mentality
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http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=16077
Wami protests suspension of Weekend Mail
Jacqueline Ann Surin
PETALING JAYA (Nov 10, 2006): The Writers' Alliance for Media Independence (Wami) has protested the Internal Security Ministry's decision to suspend the Weekend Mail, saying the newspaper had a right to publish even if its taste and judgment were questionable.
"While we may not agree with the tabloid's taste and judgment, we vigorously stand up for their right to publish and the public's right to critique their content.
"We are also against the state's arbitrary power to dictate our journalism and our cultural of life," Wami chairman Wong Chin Huat said today in a media statement.
He noted that this was the fourth newspaper to be suspended this year.
"We renew civil society's May 3 call for a Parliamentary Select Committee to be established to review all media-related laws, including the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA).
"This episode (with the Weekend Mail) once again shows that the law has given the minister unchecked powers to suppress freedom of expression and of the media," Wong said.
On Wednesday (Nov 8), the Malay Mail reported that its weekend publication had been suspended because of the controversy over its stories and pictures on sex in the Nov 4-5 issue.
The report quoted ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof as saying the stories were contrary to Eastern values, thus violating guidelines set out under sub-section 6(2) of the PPPA.
However, Wong pointed out that the law does not stipulate any definition or objective test for contents that may be considered "contrary to Eastern values".
"The ministry cited sub-section 6(2) of the PPPA to justify the suspension while the sub-section speaks only about the absolute power of the minister who may at any time revoke or suspend a (publishing) permit for any period he considers desirable," Wong noted.
He said no single politician should have either the ability or right to define or defend the degree of civility and decency in society.
Wong reminded the minister that Malaysians can choose for themselves what to read and what not to read.
"Debating and converging on the standards of cultural appropriateness is the duty and right of every concerned citizen.
"The tabloid's prompt apology (after outrage at its reporting) in fact shows the power of public opinion," Wong added.
Wong said Wami also wanted to extend its solidarity to the publication's editor Mohd Zulkifli Abdul Jalil who has been suspended pending an internal investigation.
"We may not share his taste and judgment. But, it's exactly our right to disagree with him that we are now steadfastly defending."
Yes, Ghani is right. I belong to the Chinese community with a heritage of 5000 years of culture and history.
I would not want to be included in the category of Bangsa Malaysia because that will diminish my glorious heritage. I would prefer to call myself Chinese rather then Bangsa Malaysia.
Your malay civilisation is hardly 300 years if we take the Malacca sultanate as the starting point. So you please stick with your pivotal malay race and I with my pivotal Chinese race.
Many malays don't like to admit it, but once upon a time, they were not Muslims like everyone else!
Malays were part of the migration of Polynesian peoples whose original home was Yunan in China to South-East Asia in what is known as Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia……….
At that time the Orang Asli were already well settled in the malay Peninsula, so that makes them the most legitimate of the bumis.
Malays were animists then for hundreds of years until Indians crossed Bay of Bengal to South-East Asia and spread Indian and Hindu culture to the peoples there.
Hence we had the great Hindu kingdoms which later also became Buddhist kingdoms of Srivijaya, Majapahit, Langkasuka - but main thing to note is that racially the peoples were malays and speak old malay language.
Islam only came to South-East Asia from 1400 after foundation of Malacca by Parameswara. Again from India crossed Bay of Bengal and spread Islam to South-East Asia. Malacca sultans were among the first converts and the rest is history.
Please note that the malays have been Muslims for only 600 years and have been Hindus/Buddhists very much longer - at least 2000 years. Malay culture is very much influenced by Hindu culture including Sanskrit words like the wayang kulit, raja, maharaja, etc.
Unlike Javanese, who are proud of their Hindu/Buddhist past reflected in great empires like Srivijaya and Majapahit, malays are generally ashamed to dwell on their pre-Islamic Hindu/Buddhist past.
On the contrary some malays try to be like the Arab wannabes, trying to cleanse the malays of their Hindu/Buddhist past - in this even the songs and films of P Ramlee become victimized!
If Islam had not come to South-East Asia, malays would still be Hindus/Buddhists like the Balinese which is not a bad idea as Balinese are considered very peaceful people.
Umno is not only immune from corruption but from any crime. They have become a law unto themselves. Umno arrogance has reached the zenith. Now let wait until it self-destructs.
Federal Laws - Taking care of federal issues.
State Laws - Taking care of state issues.
Syariah Laws - Taking care of Islamic issues.
Umno Laws - Taking care of corruptions, cronies and benefits distribution issues.
This Nazri no different from Najis……….
By the way Anti-Corruption Agency is run by Badawi.
Christopher response to Nazri "Umno immune from ACA ruling" really makes our politicians looks so uneducated when it comes to the laws of the nation.
There is always discrepancy between the source the Malaysia government used to produce reports and the source the media is getting.
Later they will say those source from media is rubbish while they don't even know how is their source came about.
Just like the Asli report, until right now the government couldn't release the methodology they used to calculate the NEP.
Ask you, if you earn RM1000 per month 10 years ago and if you earn RM1000 now, will your lifestyle is the same?
Only those people who stayed under the 'well' will keep the money under the pillow and still thinking that he is 'rich' forever.
Badawi failed statistic paper, what do you expected his judgment of stock?
Why the destruction in wealth? I give you one word (four if you want to be pedantic) - Umno.
If you look back at all the man made calamities suffered by this bountiful country, the rampant corruption, hypocrisy, leakages, wastages, misguided and plainly destructive policies, it all leads back to that one entity, Umno.
The core or the political center as one puts it, is cancerous and utterly rotten. No doubt, there are good people in the party willing to fight for the values we all cherish, but the hierarchy from the top right down to divisional leaders, is beyond salvation.
Every Malaysian worth his salt feels shame for the downright shameful way the country is being run except the country's leaders. I doubt they know the meaning of shame.
Our resources and public fund are being drained like the 'air longkang'. Of course our economic will also heads toward and looks like 'air longkang'. The management of country economic is given to wrong person like 'kera mendapat bunga'.
Of course we know what happen to the flower. God bless Bolehland.
Brain drain is going on at the rapid pace as rapid as how rapid China and India is growing!
No meritocracy, no transparency, wishy-washy policies, daylight robbery - and we expect investors to come into this country?
Without the EPF propping up the stock market, the paper losses would have been phenomenal. In any case, this government will simply lower the bar and put on the spin that the Malaysia stock market is still in positive territory.
Remember - these people do not know the meaning of the word 'shame'.
Our Malaysia educational policy is in a hopeless situation. By changing from English medium to bahasa melayu, we lost a generation of English speaking people.
Now countries like China and India have overtaken us. Soon Indonesia and Vietnam will also overtake us, if they had not done so. Our country will eventually become the sick man of Asia.
We will be a nation with a lot of unemployable graduates with qualification that is not recognised by any country outside Malaysia.
Frankly, all our local university qualifications are not recognised by any oversea educational body. That is a polite way of saying that your university standard is lousy and not up to standard.
So those of you in local university, stop wasting your time, might as well do a vocational course. You have better chance to get a job.
Always operate in "black box" - even worst than an enterprise company - we also want to know who is the crony contractor? GLC? Or Umno link company?
Another sad day for all Malaysians, sorry for the taxpayers from other states because your tax money also being used for the project - which you maybe never ever has the chance to use it!
In Malaysia, anything above the million rinngit mark no need tender. Reminds me of crooked people build crooked bridge.
Problem with the ministers in this country - they are politicians first and ministers last. They need to spend more of their time politicking to stay in power and hence have less time for their jobs, which are the benefits accrued from their political standings.
So it matters not if their job efficiency sucks. As long as you have a strong political position, you have a good ministerial position. This is especially true for the non-Umno ministers.
These ministers also know that the real power in their ministry rest with their top civil servants who are invariably of a different race. So there is really little they can do to exercise their true authority. Ultimately smart thing to do is to "see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil".
Testimony to this state of affairs is the similarly dismal performance of the other ministries that have non-Umno ministers.
The prime minister without realising it, actually acknowledged this state of affairs when he warned the "Little Napoleons" civil servants but not the ministers, who should have been the first to be held responsible for any shortcomings.
Ripping off the people is a way of life the government in our country. It is also accepted as an unofficial government policy. In every project there is rip off. If we make further investigations we will find Umno hands all over the place, in every project.
The government is a cow to be milked by every Umno clown from the prime minister down to a branch leader. This is the unwritten policy of the NEP which will go on to 2020 and then to eternity. Keep on ripping off till there is nothing left in the kitty.
Malaysia and its ordinary people will suffer with this nonsense!
Very funny indeed. The only reliable section worth reading in Malaysia newspapers are the comic sections. Period.
Get real.
Alternative news and blogs are not accurate because they don't carry all the stories of rape and incest that the mainstream media carry. That surely puts the country in bad light because readers will think that these things don't happen in Malaysia and it could be misleading.
Yes, along the way, let us dump the Federal Constitution and replace it with the Umno Constitution, that ought to do the trick!
Bodowi, Badawi, Baboowi, where were you born? When were you born? You try so hard to be more stupid than yesterday and only yesterday we thought you cannot be any more stupid than the day before!
You came back from your holidays rehearsing all your answers and you were talking like a canary……….suddenly, you revert to your old incredibly stupid self. Bodowi, Badawi, Baboowi, sigh.
We all know that the mainstream medias are direct or indirect controlled by the government. Therefore the truth will never be known by people on the streets, only what they read from the newspapers.
Websites are the truth uncensored news, may it be the truth or the lies, let the people be the judge of it, instead feeding only lies.
I gave up on the Malaysia mainstream media in 1998. I only buy newspapers because my job requires me to filter through the crap and find some useful embedded info.
Being trained overseas, I have seen some really drastic stuff printed on the front page of politically linked newspapers that can cause members of parliament to resign in an instant.
They bring down big irresponsible corporations. They run expose of environmental destruction. They are a force of a change.
The media in Malaysia is not in favor of the government but rather have their balls in the government hand.
What about the stand of media organisations? Has any newspaper come out to decry these problems insinuated by a rotten system?
Malaysians that have access to the Internet most likely don't read the daily newspapers, except for the few that read 'The Star' for the national headlines.
The mainstream media is getting more and more misleading nowadays, trying to brainwash the public; not like they have not been doing it forever.
Trying to divert people attention on the government in mess, they try to target the public instead, reporting on neutral issues rather than socio-political ones.
They pretty much have no options but be a little tilted to the government and promote government agendas with very little criticizing - but then we have Malaysiakini and all the bloggers for that anyways……….
Malaysiakini has been an arena for publishing politically explosive articles. I support them for having the courage to do so. Only with a free press will our people be more educated, and our politicians more accountable for their actions.
I can personally relate to those who choose to leave for greener pastures. As a local undergraduate, I am seriously contemplating leaving the country to somewhere where I could be given the best opportunity to grow and succeed.
And why is that? Simply because time and time again I'd been denied my deserved and rightful places in either government scholarships or universities, whereas scores of 'privileged' people get offered courses because of the racial policies.
I honestly see no future in staying and trying to change things. Who knows, maybe the love of my motherland would keep me here, but my patience is wearing thin.
Maybe the Malaysia government should run a check on how many students in NUS and NTU now are Malaysians, rejected by local Malaysia education system. They were forbidden their opportunity even though they were the best of the best.
Frankly, time and time again, the politicians and those in power have embarrassed Malaysia and its citizens. We are so much more capable to achieve bigger successes in the eyes of the world, but yet we aim for the short-term ones.
Most of our Malaysia university courses are still in Bahasa Melayu and the embarrassing truth is that a large majority of our lecturers, including those with PhD and trained in English speaking countries, cannot speak and write proper English.
Don't believe me? Just go to UM and attend one of the professor inaugural lectures. Listen to the chairman introducing the speaker in English. Then you tell me whether it is fair to say, 'Why can't our local graduates speak and write proper English?' Just for our local graduates? How about their lecturers in our local universities?
Don't blame the poor academics, not their fault as they are the wonderful products of our government lame policy - we reap what we sowed. Amen!
Someday when 8 out of 10 Malaysians young adults shun our local universities - that is the heyday of Malaysians 2020 vision. Why? Disappointed students will leave our motherland to other countries for their higher education. And what Malaysia can offer? Better salary to woo them back? Yah RM1800 for local undergraduates?
It really breaks my heart to see how dimwitted and shortsighted these supposedly 'intellectual' academics can become. Woe is Malaysia education going down the drain.
Since NEP, the gap between Malaysia and Singapore deepen, and this clearly proves what Malaysia government has done so far. The main problem is the Umno warlords have abused the NEP to such an extent that the intended recipients, poor rural malays never reaped the benefits. Therefore they justified the retention of this policy.
Sometimes I wonder, do these political bigwigs actually take us people as idiots or what? I'd really like to see a government that is competent and fair for a change, but that is not going to be possible if everyone conveniently forgets about all these dumb things, the government did - when they go to the polls in the next election and give them another overwhelming majority win.
For the non-malays, who most of them were the best of their faculties in Cambridge, were not required to work off their bonds. They were told to just wait for six-months and they would be free. And now, they are i-Bankers in London, New York and so on, without any real plan to come back Malaysia.
The brain drain problem will continue on and on until those Umno warlords acknowledge their role in perpetuating the NEP as their personal cash-cow.
If you want further brain drain of local talents, keep the way as it was now. I shall stand tall and look down on you.
Lee Kuan Yew did not apologize for what he had said earlier because he believed what he said to the foreign delegates is nothing but only the truth. He went further to say that Singapore never protested over the racist remarks made by the idiot Umno leaders.
Lee, you are a great gentleman unlike the BN idiots.
That letter and the annex sum up the difference in calibre of the politicians in Malaysia as compared to that of Singapore. One in Singapore who is truly a statesman and all the rest in Malaysia are complete idiots. Just wonder why they get elected every election.
The letter from Lee is a further slap in the face for Badawi. Essentially, Lee stood up for what he said and what he said is the truth. Lee only apologizes for causing Badawi discomfort for telling the truth.
How could Singapore be accused a racist while it is not a secret that the government of Malaysia is a practitioner of racism! It is sure hypocrisy in its highest order. Shame on you, Malaysia Bodoh.
Lee did the right thing to release his letter to the media, so that his side of story won't be twisted by those Umno-controlled media. He actually said he was "sorry" for causing discomfort, but short of an apology.
This whole episode showed how stupid Badawi is. By write a letter, give Lee more avenues to talk and print his letter for all the world to see. For a former foreign minister, Badawi your international diplomacy skill is so pathetic. A true hallmark of a half past six prime minister!
The shameful incident of Chinese detainee being asked to ear squats in the nude is just the tip of the iceberg.
When the former IGP inflicted the infamous black eye on Anwar, he knew at that time that his political master would protect him. Until the international press highlighted it.
When the police harassed the Indian IT expatriates, the Indian government retaliated. When the mistreated Chinese tourists protested, the Chinese government backed them up.
All in all, Malaysia only backtracked when a Big Brother country came into the picture.
What happens to the thousands of Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Thais etc, who are harassed daily? Nobody bothered. Why? Because there would be no political or economic fallout.
The root cause of police brutality is simply explained by famous words, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Added to this dilemma, Malaysia has not seen a change of government since independence in 1957.
This country has been and continues to head in the wrong direction, setting it further back from developed countries and undoing the good work of others in the last four decades.
I propose a national independent commission to investigate and publicly report on the alleged widespread abuse and corruption in the police force. The police should not be allowed to investigate itself. This idea seems simply ridiculous.
The lack of any sense of discernment and the shameless politicisation of the issue is a bigger shame and even more incorrigible than the abuse itself!
Abuses of police power are just the symptoms of a sick government elected by an equally sick society. We need the cure. Change must be holistic and in a total package.
Ideally, we need a change of government with a two-party system.
Unfortunately, many don't trust PAS with its Taliban leanings. It appears strategic that Anwar should lead a moderate coalition comprising Keadilan and DAP as the pillars that will include parties representing the minorities.
Undoubtedly this will be difficult to achieve but it needs to start now.
There is no more room for such nonsense for this country is collapsing under the burgeoning weight of all these fat and waste.
One of the more important conclusions that we can draw from this unraveling episode is that there are policemen who are willing to lie, even when they are under oath to tell the truth in a public hearing, and even when the eyes of the entire nation are focused on them.
Let us improve in every aspect to build our Malaysia Boleh tag - which will not be fulfilled in the next hundred years if we continue like this.
The question that has to be asked is does the BN even have a plan to remove the NEP at all? The truth is without the NEP, BN and Umno would break apart and kicked out of government.
So if Umno cannot survive without the NEP, it does not even matter what the facts are because they won't get rid of a policy that will end their tenure in government.
Umno-malays will never remove NEP. Trust me.
Without NEP, how are they going to amass wealth? Without NEP, how are they going to play golf every weekend? Without NEP, how are they going to take second wife?
This proves that Asli original report is indeed accurate and that the claim by a certain minister and the lame prime minister himself that bumi equity is only 19% is the real rubbish
Well, can't say I blame them - they are rubbish themselves
Badawi a leader for all Malaysians? You got to be kidding. He is the leader of the den of thieves known as Umno. As long as Umno is in power, the NEP will remain. Don't ever think otherwise.
Umno is like a person who does not know how to do an honest day work. It is nothing more than a spoilt kid who has been given everything it has ever wanted, and more. Yes, the self-destruction has begun, and there is no turning back unless the voters are savvy enough to vote them out of power.
Sadly, this is unlikely to happen, as Umno general assembly is going to demonstrate exactly how the thieves intend to stay in power at whatever cost - including using the perennial non-malay bogeyman.
Without the NEP, Umno will not survive, so they have to continue to pillage, rape and steal the country's resources without any due regard for the future.
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