"The people's paper" is actually the MCA's paper

Hypocritically dubbed “The people’s paper”, The Star is showing itself, yet again, as a MCA mouthpiece. Check out its section 2 on 18 March. See the big splash of Chew Mei Fun, incumbent MCA parliamentary candidate for PJ Utara?

Except for page 4, which is all ads, photos and stories of her take up all of page 1 through 6 (not counting the ads). The writers show how hard- working Chew is and even confessed to having trouble keeping up with her long and grueling 6am-to-1am schedule.

But wait, that was not all. Another story of her in the paper on the same day can be found on page 32 of section 1. A shorter piece, it is on her response to the criticism that her role as an MP was merely that of a councillor. Hardly any elaboration on the criticism was given by the paper, which was only interested in giving her side of the story.

Even if the paper did not intend to make the connection between the two separate items, the unintended impact on the readers is that the feature story illustrates the point that Chew was trying to make in the short news item.

The focus on women candidates like Chew is obviously in recognition of the fact that women make up 52 per cent of the electorate nationwide. The outcome of any election would largely hinge on how the women vote.

We are also not here to question Chew's diligence. However, can we expect The Star to offer an equally generous feature story on a non-BN candidate before polling day? Surely, there are non-BN female incumbents who are just as diligent.

How about any one of these incumbent MPs from the DAP—Theresa Kok of Seputeh, Fong Po Kuan of Batu Gajah, or Chong Eng of Bukit Mertajam?

We are afraid to hold our breath, though, to wait for the paper to show they have the guts to play fair. Still, fair's fair; we would be happy to have the paper disabuse us of our scepticism.