NST glosses over Prime Minister's lie

On 12 February 2008, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi told the world that Parliament would not be dissolved the next day. But then he went and dissolved it the very next day (13 February).

The NST even had egg splattered on its face. On the day the PM announced the dissolution of Parliament, a report in the paper that day said:

‘Parliament won’t be dissolved today’

BANGI: Parliament will not be dissolved today.

The prime minister dismissed intense speculation that he would seek to dissolve parliament on the basis of his penchant for the number 13.

“No such thing,” Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters after the launch of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Institut Islam Hadhari.

Pressed further if today’s cabinet meeting would be the last for the 11th parliamentary term, he asked back: “What makes you think it’s going to be the last?”

“There will be more (meetings to come).”

Any decent person would say the PM had lied. But not the mainstream media. What’s more, they appeared pleased with what Badawi - who actually is no longer the Prime Minister now that Parliament is dissolved - had done and even used it to take a swipe at the opposition parties.

Take the NST’s report today, 14 February. Its headline “Opposition Caught Off-Guard” says it all. The article gives a run-down of how key leaders of the opposition parties were upset by Abdullah’s sudden dissolution of Parliament and had to change plans abruptly or scramble to get ready for election campaigning. The paper is quite clearly doing a ventriloquist act for Badawi by gleefully saying to the opposition“gotcha”. Way to go, NST. You must be pretty proud.

Never mind the fact that the Prime Minister a devout Muslim, lied to Malaysia the day before. Never mind the fact that the PM—who has the right and big advantage over the opposition parties to decide when to dissolve Parliament in order to pave the way for the election—was clearly abusing that right. And never mind the fact that the PM actually chided the NST and the other media on 12 February, when he said he had no plans to dissolve Parliament the next day, adding, “The Cabinet meeting will go on, go on and go on. You are the smart aleck, you all enjoy circulating the rumours," he said with a smile.

It must be fine for NST to be labelled “smart alecks” and described as enjoying circulating rumours. Or they are sharing an inside joke with the PM?

Either way, what can Malaysians expect from the NST in its coverage of the impending run-up to the election if not acting as a full throttle mouthpiece for Badawi and the BN.