Holy smoke! PAS makes it to NST's front page

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that Opposition leaders don’t often have the “privilege” of appearing on the front page of the mainstream newspapers in Malaysia. And if they do make it to the front page, it is only when they hit out at each other or they make political blunders. In short, their negative side - or what is made out to be their negative side – is what earns them the “ticket” to the front page.

Predictably, the New Sunday Times on Aug 29 ran a banner headline screaming across the front page, “Pas members slam Hadi”, accompanied by a huge photo of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang captioned “Fending off the brickbats”.

The news published was about the opposition party’s general assembly where many of its delegates strongly criticised Abdul Hadi for what appeared to be his lacklustre speech to the party faithful. The tone of the news reporting implied that the party was in disarray and the party leadership clueless.

The PAS Youth wing was particularly forceful during the party meeting in its criticism of the party leadership. It said, among other things, that new strategies must replace rhetoric so that the party could come to terms with new political and global realities. It reminded the PAS leadership that there was a need for the party to re-invent itself so that it could remain relevant not only to the people on the East Coast but also and especially to those elsewhere in the country.

If, as is likely going by the NST’s record, the daily’s motive in placing this news item on the front page was to cast further negative light on PAS, it probably failed to a certain extent this time around. Why? Because such blatant attempts have possibly reached saturation point. In short, there has been media overkill. The opposition party has also experienced a reversal of political fortunes of late including its loss at the recent Kuala Berang by-election.

To hammer a political party that had already suffered a major setback is to be “exorbitant” and “extravagant” in the use of its editorial or journalistic discretion. If anything, this negative coverage may have backfired. Readers of this front-page news item might conclude that PAS as a party still has some democratic impulses (especially among its youthful members). Readers might also have seen PAS as a party that was keen on political rejuvenation and willing to appreciate differences of opinion.

Perhaps in this context, dailies such as the NST are the ones that urgently require intellectual and political rejuvenation. These dailies are so used to providing staid coverage of the general assemblies of the various Barisan Nasional component parties that generally do not encourage criticism of the party leadership.