Of goodies, Gods and myths

Keen on bringing biased media coverage to the attention of its readers, Malaysia Today on 19 February offered a critical commentary on the mainstream media’s spin-doctored coverage of the Fong issue, “Shameless Political Partisanship of Media: The Fong Coverage.” Included in the entry was a reference to an article in theSun of particular interest—“Cashing in for the Elections”—a revealing commentary from Terence Fernandez on bribery of journalists by politicians during election periods (page 12).

Malaysiakini’s Top 10 list on 19 February included a report with a similar theme. In “RM125 mil election goodies for Chinese, Indian votes”, Malaysiakini took it upon themselves to calculate the amount of money promised to Chinese and Indian communities—in the form of land leases and the construction of schools—by the BN since 31 December. Malaysiakini’s total sum was RM125, 580,000 and was derived from BN “promises” appearing in the media. The report was clearly critical of the BN, satirically dubbing Umno president and deputy president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Abdul Razak and MCA president Ong Ka Ting the ‘Gods of Fortune’ and suggesting their use of monetary grants and land leases to “grab headlines during Chinese New Year”. The article did not state if the BN was contacted for a response.

Malaysiakini featured reports that eluded mainstream coverage. “Turmoil in MIC Batu Caves” reported on the disappointment of local leaders over speculation that S. Samy Vellu will field Puchong-based party member T. Mohan over the local choice, G. Jayakumar, for Batu Caves. A peaceful protest was held by local leaders to express their grievances to Samy Vellu. The balanced report features statements from both local leaders as well as Mohan, while Jayakumar allegedly failed to comment when contacted.

The newly-formed Parti Mahasiswa Negara (PMN) received coverage from Malaysiakini in “Spunky graduates to take on Goliaths”, which voiced the party’s plan to target three big-name parliamentary seats, including one against Abdullah Badawi in Kepala Batas. The 506-word article gave space to outline the party’s educational-reform perspectives and goals from the party president Azlan Zainal. A comment from the outgoing Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed, against whom PMN plans to contest in Jeli, called the un-registered party “a mosquito party”—a remark Azlan said was “a good sign”. None of the major English newspapers extended coverage to the party.

According to a Malaysiakini article, a woman is accusing MIC Youth chief S A Vigneswaran of “breaching a sales agreement with her and withholding more than RM500,000 of her money”. The 608-word report did a commendable job of presenting both sides of the story and allowing both parties to make their case, granting 250 and 220 words to the accuser and Vigneswaran, respectively. Reports of the issue did not grace the mainstream newspapers’ pages.

Circulating through the blogosphere were reports of an alleged false statement from Mahsuri's Langkawi Umno Secretary Mohd. Saiful Mustaffa concerning Mukhriz Mahathir’s nomination for the island’s parliamentary seat. The entry—originating with bigdogdotcom and linked to by both Malaysia Today and Rocky’s Bru—stated evidence that Mukhriz’ name was not rejected at last week’s Umno Division Exco meeting, contrary to a report posted by bernama.com. According to “Langkawi Umno Secretary made a unilateral statement”, Saiful’s statement was “personal opinion and not reflective of Langkawi Umno Division’s stance and definitely not representative of the Langkawi voters’ opinion.” Allegedly, the BN wished for Mukhriz to “continue what his father started and tirelessly worked on”. According to the report, Saiful failed to get the majority of Umno branch heads to support a petition protesting Mukhriz’ nomination. Reader’s reactions to and comments about this issue were across the spectrum. While one Malaysia Today commenter expressed hope that the public would not be taken in by Saiful’s statement, several comments on Rocky’s Bru were along the lines of Mukhriz being unwelcome in Langkawi, while others still were supportive of the former prime minister’s son.

Generating a whopping 60 comments (and growing) was a Rocky’s Bru entry, "PM to us: We Subsidized U!”, dealing with Badawi’s comments at the Penang Chinese Town Hall dialogue session. The general nature of the commentary was critical of the caretaker PM and the BN’s policies, comments on ethnic inequality and satirical remarks.