The following post was written by a friend Vijay Kumar Murugavell in response to my comment in my notes in FB. He has kindly given me permission to post this comment. You can see more of his writings @ THIS LINK. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Vijay.
Vijay's comment:
There is something else I want to get off my chest particularly to those who say that I should be more centrist.
Agreed, the media cannot print whatever they want ( for that there are slander/libel laws...) , but what action has been taken against Ut**** ? They publish no lies ? They even went on to publish seditious material. Action seems lop-sided with KDN closing both eyes to MSM but nit picking opposition aligned publications, the PPPA was amended in Mahathir's time to give sweeping powers to the home minister without judicial review (fairness / neutrality of judiciary is a whole other issue).
Let me state on record that I have little respect for MSM journalists at large they have little credibility in my eyes. The assumption that somehow media is the reporter of truth is overblown into a mythical proportion.Truth can be very subjective - it can be shaped based on your political ideology,faith,belief and the way you look at the world.
Leaving subjectivity aside there is a Malay daily that published an article insinuating that with the overwhelming victory in Perak with full support of the Rakyat, .They call a coup , support of rakyat - imagine that ! While independent polls say 90% of those polled want state assembly dissolved Malaysians have been crying out for a "credible" and transparent government instead we get inexcusable actions followed by the most "incredible" statements to defend them.
The government of the day tells us not to speculate on unsubstantiated accusations, fair enough. We could ask the government to explain their position in a credible transparent and believable manner as well, and apologize sincerely if a transgression has been committed unreservedly - not engage political spin writers who try to shove square peg into round holes while defending policies or actions that are so patently unfair that the act of defending them raises further suspicion.
If there are credible cabinet members who are sincere about their roles and give honest to goodness statements there would be no need to do embarrassingly obvious political spin. It is also insulting us further by trying to implore us to believe things that are more incredible than Aesop's fables.
Till this day many gullible folk from the Indian community believe this spin :pertaining to Anwars statement ""saya boleh hentikan semua loceng dan robohkan kuil dinegara ini" (I will stop the temple bells from ringing) I am surprised many did not read the interview of how Chandra Muzaffar spinned it, it was published in The Sun, 2 page full interview Anwar explains, please read this article.
Many PR MP's and Adun work quite hard on the ground, some very hard, but our TV3 and Surat khabar do not give coverage to this, instead they will show some BN MP holding cangkul and eating buah belimbing (starfruit) , then they will do a scripted video where 4 or 5 farmers will say "Dia manyak bagus", of course the BN controlled MSM will be more than happy to highlight the negative aspects of PR, and sometimes even spin the story around, BN has been doing this for years, only now the alternate media is exposing their butt.
Do you watch RTM1 ? If one can watch RTM 1 news without feeling nauseous, they have lost their conscience. When we have an independent mass media, judiciary, PDRM ,MACC, EC etc etc I will gladly be a centrist, but being a centrist when the whole system is hugely lop-sided, will kill my conscience .
Please leave a comment to share your thoughts and views. Thanks! Have a great day!
10 comments to MUSINGS ON MSM
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Darth Vader I have stopped watching news on RTM, TV3 etc etc a long time ago. wasting my time. Also i have had stopped buying MSM newspaper for about 5 years now. I dont believe a single thing they publish. However, i do go online to read their bullshits. each time i read news online, it gets me worked up and my blood boiling.
If you write 90% good things about the govenrment, then you are a CENTRIST else you are lobsided, this is what they government expects. One thing the government forgot is that PEOPLE ARE NO LONGER STUPID.
The political situation in Malaysia is just like Thailand. Only difference, the Thais has more guts that Malaysians. During Thaksins era, the urbanites does not vote for him. But the rural folks loved him. Here in Malaysia, similiar situation occurs. Urbanites dont like BN as we can clearly seen in Mar 08, BN lost all the FT Parliament seats (except Putrajaya - which is expected due to huge number of civil servants there). Rural areas in Malaysia still give their support to BN. This is largely due to the role played by MSM.
Again, i hope PR will be on alert. Banci or Census is on going now thru out Malaysia. Once it is finish, the will compile the stats and we will see changes to the electrorate boundaries being redrawn.
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Anonymous "If one can watch RTM 1 news without feeling nauseous, they have lost their conscience."
Absolutely!
The whole lot(TVs and Papers) are already nauseous enough to be boycotted without needing much more considerations. No need to look for any fatuous mitigating factors.
~wits0~
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Unknown Dear StraightTalking
Thanks for being of the same mind! I am very tickled by your hilarious suggestions/plans and hope that some will come to pass :-).
What a glorious time it will be then!
Take care and thanks for sharing!
Cheers
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Unknown Dear Darth Vader
Many thanks for your insightful response to Vijay's comments. I hope that you and many other readers/commenters will continue to enlighten other Malaysians about the need to establish a just and fair government.
Thanks for the alert to be on guard. We have to be watchful and vigilant during such challenging times.
Take care and know that it is lovely to hear from you again.
Have a pleasant evening.
Cheers
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Unknown Dear ~wits0~
It is amazing how they can still survive despite the drop in readership.
Perhaps they could foresee the negative change and had tried to penetrate schools etc via cheaper prices.
Take care and have a restful evening!
Cheers
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Captain Obvious Dear masterwordsmith,
Some time ago I watched Star Wars 2 - Attack of the Clones and I thought it was awesome, but no! After I watched the Sodomy Wars 2 – Clone of the Attack, guess what, I was overwhelmed, it was so kick 'ARSE'!!! Only with RTM, teman setia anda and you simply don't get that with alternate media you know...
Cheers!
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Anonymous Ah, remeber the late Minister of Information, Datuk Rahmat ? He was tasked to bring down Semangat 46 by hook or crook. Thus, he spins non stop and till today the art of those spinnings were mastered by the new breed of unethical journalists. They report only what their masters want them to write.
So how to be a centrist, leh. They moved the goal post when they want to score so how do we compete with such a team ? They spin and we counter spin and no wonder many are lost in the spinning whirpool not knowing what is true.
The days of the govt know best and also that we can be push around by their spinnings are over. We are standing against injustice and the least we can do is to vote in a new govt to restore those lost values.
No middle ground now as we are pushed to the other side not of choice but by their own undoing of selective prosecution and piratisation. Either we are for the current system or against it, for we cannot sit on the fence and hope for those bad things to float away. Nor can we imagine it to be over by just talking and blogging. We need to act on it and there is no better chance then GE13.
Yes, StraightTalking, let me sponsor T-shirt for them with slogan. " Born to live. Live to steal and rob the ignoramus." Malaysia Mesti Bolih.
~ahoo~
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Unknown Dear Captain Obvious
Haha!! Thanks for such a lively and priceless comment!
Yup - only on RTM :-)LOL!!
Thanks for the smiles and subtle message.
Cheers
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Unknown Dear ahoo
Yes, I remember him...wrote about him and his 'Setia' song a few posts ago...
Love the way you used the football analogy to accent your argument.
All of us must stand together and demand for a sure fire penalty kick that will boot them out ...only in the next GE.
Thanks for your steadfast belief that we have to unite to make that dream come true.
Cheers
Anonymous Thank you Vijay. All the words that I had wanted to express have been found in your article. (What a relief. Phew!)
Oh, one more thing…is there anyone who can provide a list of the more “out-spoken” BN dickheads? You see, I needed that badly because I’ll be throwing an exclusive, by invitation only “Thank You” party after the GE13 and only these people on the list will be invited to grace the occasion. We need to be grateful to them for helping bring down BN you know. I’ve some potential names of course, but I want it to be a really BIG party, and there’ll be lots of fun and games AND prizes to be won…like a gold medal for the most out-spoken dickhead…the most violent dickhead, the most racist dickhead, the oldest dickhead (this one of course Dr. Toon will win hands down)…the youngest dickhead…the most-seen-on-TV dickhead, and so on and so forth.
Of course PR diehards will be fettered to a “Victory” party after that.
StraightTalking