Sun puts Keadilan and PAS in poor light

theSun’s coverage's last week was mainly dominated by official statements and functions involving the Barisan Nasional, with Umno’s two top leaders, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Abdul Razak addressing their campaigns to delink the recent high profile anti-corruption cases and the forthcoming elections. The Barisan Nasional and its component parties and leaders were featured in 17 out of the total 24 news pieces on the elections, while the rest quoted opposition parties and the Election Commission.

The BN pieces mainly dealt with the party’s confidence of winning over states and seats controlled by the opposition and the preparedness of the party machinery at the various levels. The coverage of the DAP was more in favour of the party, but the same cannot be said for Pas and Parti Keadilan Nasional (Keadilan). Keadilan, which occupied a significant space on page 2 on 16/02/04, was described as weak and “unable to emulate” the success of the BN, in quoting Najib, the Umno deputy chairman. The BN’s offensive seems to be on Keadilan as reflected by the statement of Umno Permatang Pauh protem division chairman Abdul Jalil Abdul Majid about the numbers of constituents who are switching back to the BN. He was quoted as saying that many of those who voted for Keadilan president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in the 1999 elections had done so out of sympathy for her husband Anwar Ibrahim, and are now supporting Umno.

The Friday edition (20/02/04) had the most number of stories dedicated to pre-election news with 8, including the front page that featured Najib urging a halt to speculation that several other high profile personalities are on the Anti-Corruption Agency’s list. While the BN and the opposition were given equal coverage in terms of story count (four each), only one on the opposition was given sufficient prominence. This was a piece on Lim Guan Eng’s appeal for royal pardon (13 paragraphs, with pix, page 2). Another shorter news piece was on DAP’s hope to contest all seats in Petaling Jaya; a similar piece had been published earlier in the week for the state of Malacca. Two pieces highlighted Parti Keadilan Nasional; however, one quoted a BN leader “advising” the opposition party’s youth leader Ezam Mohd Noor to rejoin Umno, and the other was on the expulsion of Keadilan Youth’s secretary Lokman Noor Adam. In the latter, it was implied that Lokman’s sacking was the result of his questioning the party leaders over misuse of funds.

There were no features or news analysis on the elections, and only one Letter to the Editor under the heading “Let’s have committed candidates, please” (20/02/04, page 7).