Oil price-hike demonstrators 'vanish' into thin air

The notion that the mass media are not necessarily mirrors of society has been made abundantly clear today. The deafening silence by the mainstream press, particularly the New Straits Times and The Star, over yesterday’s mass demonstration against the recent petrol price hike speaks volumes of the mainstream media’s commitment to reporting the truth.

The demonstration was staged by opposition parties, non-governmental organisations and other concerned Malaysians near the Kuala Lumpur City Centre in the shadow of the Petronas Twin Towers, a mega project. A crowd of around 1,000 (according to AFP) to 2,000 (Malaysiakini) people participated in the protest.

But what you see in the newspapers is not what you get in real life. It never took place – or so the newspapers would like their readers to believe.

Diluting the anger

Any journalist or seasoned editor with a hard nose for news would have recognised instantly that the demonstration deserved the attention of the media, the government, civil society, and concerned Malaysians. Yet, these newspapers consciously chose to ignore this legitimate expression of anger and anxiety over the price hike – as if such views, shared by hundreds of thousands if not millions of other Malaysians, didn’t matter at all. Had the media, including a daily that fashions itself as a ‘people’s paper’, been more socially responsible, they would have picked up this story. At the very least, reports of the demonstration could have provided feedback to the government as to how the public felt about the move.

Instead, what newspapers such as the NST have done is to run a couple of stories that suggest that the government is committed to controlling the prices of essential goods. Such reports have focussed on, for instance, the plan to set up more so-called fair-price shops and on the Perlis Menteri Besar’s call to civil servants to cycle to office – as if this would allay the fears of ordinary Malaysians.

In fact, blacking out the news of the public expression of fear and disgust runs counter to the spirit of good governance, transparency and accountability, which the present government professes to uphold. Surely, one of the ways of ensuring government accountability is to provide space for public scrutiny and even criticism of government action, where necessary. It is morally reprehensible of the press to abdicate this crucial role.

Besides, the anger and anxiety among demonstrators and other ordinary Malaysians is also because they were caught by surprise when the government rather sheepishly and suddenly announced the price hike. The government had not adequately prepared the people – nor had they revamped public transport - ahead of the price hike.

Perhaps the mainstream media (and, let us be clear, they have to second-guess the government) felt that blacking out such news would dilute the mass anger, by making individual Malaysians feel that not many other people share their disgust and dismay. Perhaps the idea is to make them feel that their individual anger is not representative of the broader public sentiment and thus prevent individuals from networking with others and vocally joining in to demand accountability.

"Let them eat cake"

The media’s damage control exercise wasn’t really helpful though. In fact, it may have sowed further aggravation among many Malaysians when deputy premier Najib Razak went on the air via all the major television stations in the country to try to ‘explain’ the reasons for the hike.

It was a PR exercise that was not even well executed. The Bernama chief editor’s management of the interview left much to be desired, and Najib’s ‘explanations’ raised more questions than answers. For instance, Najib called on fellow Malaysians to tighten their belts and change their lifestyle. It sounded a bit like “let them eat cake”, as the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote of "a great princess" who told the peasants to eat cake/brioche when she heard they had no bread.

The interviewer could have asked Najib how on earth he expected low-income working class families to tighten their belts when many households were already living on shoe-string budgets. And why was his proposal targeted only at ordinary Malaysians? The interviewer could have asked: What about the ministers themselves? How about a substantial cut in their salaries? Better still, why doesn’t Pak Lah trim his bloated cabinet? Are the federal and state governments and government departments willing to cut down on unnecessary and wasteful ceremonies, which often involve merely ‘greeting’ ministers and other VIPs?

Najib was also reported as saying that Malaysians should, as part of their change in life-styles, rely more on public transport. All very well for him to talk - when ministers are chauffeur-driven everywhere, with a fleet of out-riders to boot. He should have been grilled on the deplorable state of public transport, which had been neglected in the drive to promote private vehicle ownership. The interviewer could also have asked if the ministers would be willing to show leadership-by-example by abandoning their petrol-guzzling limousines in favour of public transport? Have they experienced what our public transport is like, in the first place?

Which brings us to the next matter: Najib should also have been pressed on whether his challenge for Malaysians to change their lifestyles runs counter to the so-called ‘national car’ project, which celebrates private vehicle ownership. Would the government soft-pedal on its national car project now? And, pursuing this line of questioning, would the government be willing to see a drop in the toll collection of highway concessionaires, many of whom are ‘friendly’ to the ruling BN, if more Malaysians were to use buses, taxis and trains?

These are the kinds of issues one would have expected Najib and the interviewer to focus on and to enlighten ordinary Malaysians. Instead, by depriving citizens of the democratic space to express their sentiments and by indulging in PR/damage control, the mainstream media may have only further confounded and irritated the masses.