Khairy, Chandra’s legal woes get more coverage in cyberspace

Stories covering both Parti Keadilan Rakyat de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as well as the retraction of indelible ink use by the Elections Commission dominated both mainstream and online coverage for 6 March. That is where the similarities ended. The knowledge reached and perceptions formed by readers in regards to these topics will have relied greatly on whether they took information from the dailies or from alternative, online news sources.

Malaysiakini posted “RM110mil law suite against Khairy, Chandra” in the early evening of 5 March—an article detailing the legal action, in the form of a defamation suit, potentially being filed by Anwar Ibrahim against Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former PKR deputy president Chandra Muzaffar over alleged derogatory and nonfactual comments made against him at a 20 Feb ceramah and published in a 4 Mar New Straits Times article. The report outlines how Khairy, at the Lembah Pantai ceramah, “gave listeners the impression that Anwar is a homosexual, and a man of low morals who also has no Islamic values”. According to the Malaysiakini article, comments made by Chandra at a forum on 3 March and published in the NST the next day, “implied that Anwar ‘was and is promoting and inciting racial hatred amongst the races in Malaysia”. Anwar has since filed the suit against Chandra for RM10 million in damages.

Not surprisingly, this story was completely distorted by the English dailies. All three - theSun, New Straits Times, and Star - approached the story from the angle of Chandra’s defence, relaying how Chandra defended his comments in a response letter to Anwar’s lawyer: “I do not find any reason whatsoever to retract any of the statements that I have made…”. The remarks were apparently “fully borne out by facts and information within [Chandra’s] personal knowledge” (theSun). The NST published similar statements in its page 6 story, while the Star avoided direct quotations altogether in its tiny article, buried all the way down on page 35. None of the mainstream publications bothered to describe the nature of the remarks, while theSun devotes its expansive, front-page article to further Anwar-bashing by Chandra.

Then again, “Bashing Anwar” seemed to be the theme of the day.

If you read only the mainstream publications, you might think that Anwar Ibrahim had recently grovelled at the feet of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for re-entry into Umno. “Umno does not want Anwar” and “We don’t want Anwar back” screamed the headlines from the second and fourth pages of NST and The Star respectively. These articles reported on the Umno rally, featuring Barisan leaders in Penang’s Rifle Range, allegedly held in an attempt to win the Chinese vote. Devoting not one or even two, but five articles to this particular ceramah, The The Star regurgitated the assaults made against both Anwar’s and Guan Eng’s characters by Barisan Nasional leaders, including Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Both publications emphasised the large turnout: The Star vaguely and repeatedly cited “thousands” of people while the NST inflated the number to “more than 10,000”.

In comparison, the Malaysiakini entry, “BN bashes Anwar, Guan Eng”, estimated the number of people present at 3,500. In addition, the article placed Abdullah Badawi’s statement, “the party can’t accept [Anwar] back, no way! We have enough leaders, no need to wait for him to come back,” in context with the 1998 sacking of the former Deputy Prime Minister under Mahathir Mohamad’s rule. Further, Malaysiakini acknowledged the contradiction in Abdullah's comments which followed an initial declaration at the onset of his speech: ““I don’t need to talk about Anwar, he is not important to me, he is not important to Umno.” All of these details were missing from the mainstream publications, which seemed to relish in the BN’s “salvo” against the opposition. Ironically, “Crowd size doesn’t matter” on page 36 of The Star dismissed the large number of supporters drawn by DAP adviser, Lim Kit Siang, at a recent ceramah and demonised the opposition for engaging in “personal attacks”.

Human rights group joins opposition in “baying outrage” over indelible ink reversal

For a second time, Malaysia.msn.com brought an AFP report concerning human rights in Malaysia to the attention of the public. Previously, Malaysia.msn.com featured an AFP story citing Malaysia’s dismal performance on Reporter’s Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index. This time, the AFP article—subsequently posted on Malaysiakini, Malaysia-today, and Jeff Ooi’s Screenshots—featured statements from New York-based human rights group, Human Rights Watch, on the Election Commission’s decision to retract the use of indelible ink. In the “Breaking News” story box, the article’s headline, “Activists warn Malaysian elections will be 'dirtiest ever,'” loomed over a picture of a hazy Kuala Lumpur skyline.

On the scrapping of the ink process, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has declared the decision unfortunate but unavoidable, and lamented that the opposition “is happy because now they have an excuse to tell the whole world why they cannot succeed in the election”. But Human Rights Watch is not buying it. According to the AFP report, HRW has said that “Malaysians will be denied a fair vote in Saturday's general election” and is “accusing the government of muzzling the opposition and manipulating the electoral process.” This is a significant claim, as HRW is an organisation known to deal with severe violations of human rights. Yet, the mainstream publications reflected Abdullah Badawi’s “no-big-deal” attitude.

The Star gave the issue little coverage and provided statements on the issue from ruling coalition leaders only. The NST provided more information, including the MCA’s criticism of the EC for failing to identify and solve problems sooner. Malaysiakini provided a full article on the MCA’s criticism, “MCA raps commission over indelible ink reversal”. As a notable example of mainstream bias, the NST's editorial “Smear Campaign,” dubbed the indelible ink “a bad idea to begin with” and referred to the opposition as a “sundry cohort of anti-establishmentarians that are baying outrage” over the reversal of its use.

All in all, the mainstream press presented an extremely nonchalant attitude about the issue despite the clear potential for human rights violations as highlighted by HRW. But only citizens with internet access would be exposed to this international criticism avoided by the mainstream papers. At least its placement on Malaysia.msn.com could potentially catch the attention of even the least politically inclined. Another improvement was the absence of the interactive Barisan Nasional political advertisement which did not dance on the public’s screens toay.

Malaysiakini’s Open House

Malaysiakini is offering free access to all of its online news services from 4-10 March, in an effort to provide voters with independent news so they can make an informed choice on polling day. Editor-in-chief Steven Gan said the news service aimed “to play our part in helping Malaysians exercise their democratic right".