Has the Election Commission given the green light for political campaigning?


Has the Election Commission given the green light for political campaigning for the 11th general election but forgotten to inform the opposition parties?

Yesterday (Feb. 23), TV1, TV3 and NTV7 sure acted as though electioneering had begun as they gave prominent coverage to UMNO, led by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, descending on Kelantan. On the pretense of opening a new UMNO building in Kelantan,Abdullah and others from UMNO, such as Muhammad Taib, were shown posturing for Kelantan voters. They expressed confidence in UMNO or BN making inroads into the Pas-controlled state.

The prime minister said the people of Kelantan who voted for Pas in the past for a change were now ready to vote for BN because unlike BN, Pas had failed to deliver its promises to the people. He also said that BN believed in power-sharing, clearly implying that Pas and the other opposition parties did not. And he argued that what UMNO needed to do to dislodge Pas from Kelantan in the upcoming election was to stop party infighting.

But where was Pas? Not a word in response to UMNO was offered by the three TV channels. Professionalism, if not common sense, should have told them that including a Pas response, even if merely a token act, is in order because of the party’s near total dominance of Kelantan in the 1999 election. But the three TV channels appeared more interested in serving as mouthpieces of UMNO/BN at the expense of professionalism or common sense.

All three TV channels suggested that the public appearance of Abdullah and UMNO in Kelantan was very well received. TV3 indicated that it attracted a turnout of “several thousand” while NTV7 reported a crowd size of 50,000. The latter did not say where the number had come from, although the New Straits Times (on Feb. 24) attributed that number to UMNO officials. By unhesitatingly accepting the 50,000 turnout and not mentioning UMNO as the source for it, NTV7 showed it was willing to dispense with its journalistic independence or integrity and accept whatever UMNO dished out as the truth.