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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Our High and Mighty Mediacracy



Here is Walla’s comments on my article about Mediacracy. An excellent piece of writing that must be shared with all right thinking Malaysians.

A government which is truly and honestly concerned about the rakyat would not practice mediacrassy (sic). It would want truths to be said so that lessons can be learned for real improvements to be made not just outwardly but also inwardly.
A puppet press glossing over bad things is like publicly broadcasting implicit proxy approval to the perpetrators to repeat them. Over time, stakes will be raised so that a small mistake will soon become a big bad deliberate deed.
We all know the quintessential question: if a government governs the people, who governs the government? It must be universal principles implemented without fear or favour by institutions of integrity.
But what happens when the institutions themselves are run by people appointed to high office by the perpetrating government concerned? Then it becomes abang-adik bertolong-menolong to subvert principles and fair-play on the excuse of political expediency as slogan to protect stability for development.
Integrity is then sacrificed and the sky becomes the only limit to abuse power, victimize the righteous, practice double standards and cheat the rakyat although the requisite rules of law may already be in place.
In some instances, the rules of law are themselves not updated for new situations in order to crimp such universal rights as the authorities in power may think will generate threats to their own way of life prioritized over their long-forgotten oath of duty to rakyat and nation.
In other cases, the rules of law are used selectively, for instance to bar activists from entering a state on political grounds as pointed out recently by Lord Pannick in his closing sentence.
The only antidote against all this is a proactive media to open more minds and help create a climate of critical thinking that will rationalize towards the right thing to do over the wrong thing to use just to satisfy the political ambitions of those in power.
 An enlightened and pro-citizen media will demolish the devilish turfdom of bad government.     It can even lift the rakyat out of the darkness of the devil into the light of the angel.  It can add momentum to the wave-change in mindset already started by the rakyat themselves.
Such a media can use its array of expertise and tools to spark real open improvement in government instead of conscribing minds to the status quo of past comfort no longer sustainable under present circumstances.

 A free press today will show that the only problem in this country is Umno. Not MCA nor MIC nor Gerakan for their epitaphs have already been written on the berlin wall of Putrajaya that is crumbling even as the remnant ranks of Umno are trying to erect a new west-bank wall in a final us-versus-them posturing against the majority of the voting rakyat.
So Barisan today is for all intents and purposes only Umno. But the Umno today has to be without Umno Wanita and Umno Youth. Going into GE13, Umno Wanita IS Shahrizat's cowgate. Going into GE13, Umno Youth IS that Penang celup.
And going into GE13, Umno is Mahathir, the only man no subpoena can touch so that he is now reduced to talking about bulldozers, perhaps in recollection of his own draconian methods against the lives of so many that have only succeeded in leaving behind a trail of corruption and racism, financial destruction, mental chauvinism, forfeiture of principles and personal vendettas.
It is also Najib, the new sheriff of Nottingham who would strike fear about Malay rights even on Malaysia Day while con-fabulously spending today YOUR money of YOUR future generations in a vain effort to create HIS own personal, superficial, flip-flopping and self-contradicting brand.
It is also Muhyiddin, the 1Malay brutus who has already as an oversight omitted in his new education blueprint the living skill of golf-playing, so necessary these days to win seratus billion ringgit contracts, no?
 But let us be fair and not forget the others.
Umno must also include Rastam who would have opined his piece about PR enriching itself at precisely the fateful moment when he was applying shaving lotion while staring at his own face in the mirror. Will the simple-minded, self-syioking people of Melaka wake up anytime soon?
How about Hishammudin and Nazri who expel intestinal air when they open their mouths, or the two Ali's, men of Umno's principle of no-principles, or Nong Chik, businessman-minister now framed in psychedelic LED display panels along the main road before you enter Bangsar. Or the two Aman's namely Musa and Anifah of UBS infamy. Or Shafie Apdal, Noh Omar, Zahid Hamidi, Zamry Kadir, Mustapa Mohamed, Mukhriz Apanama. Or Syed Albukhary and his monopolies. Or Rozali Ismail with his kensington-styled twin and back-to-back TTDI bungalows. Or the AG, KSN, IGP, MACCC, ECC, BNMG. Or the Umno grand viziers advising the royal houses.

 A free press would have done a good editorial on these men whose only distinction is in the black arts of spin and twist, power control and self-reward. Exactly what else are they good for, pray tell.
In the interest of their readers, even WCW of Star, Awang Selamat of Urusan, Farid Ridzuan of TV3, or perhaps Rocky Balboa himself will have to admit something is not right somewhere.
After all, how can Malaysia make finite and honest progress with this bunch? They're asking you for another five-year mandate to rule you and your children in the way Umno has run this country to the ground with overpriced development layered over stability branded in its own name. Unless you are saying the groundswell that had caused Barisan to lose five states the last general elections was just a mirage and the hundreds of thousands who had walked for clean government are just a figment of lordey-blimey's and kampong-originated, UK-trained, engineer's febrile imaginations.
And yet the same bunch wants to rule again over our Malays in Umno who number no more than sixteen percent of all our Malays who in turn number sixty percent of the population.
It is inconceivable that fraction of our Malays who are still in Umno are so blind in denial that they have closed their eyes and ears completely to what Urusan has already publicly admitted, namely it only spews pro-Umno propaganda.
A deed if done good needs neither introduction nor publicity. You only make propaganda when cause and effect are disjointed which more often than not happen when real intentions have been masked.
The masking tape of lies and spins are telling of a bad government run by a worse political party ruled by the worst culprits in the land.

14 comments:

Patrick 18 September 2012 at 19:06  

I believe that the opposition and new govt of Malaysia now have the perfect person for Minister of Law. She beats that Nazri guy in our current cabinet by leaps and bound and makes him look like a 5 year old spoilt brat. Malaysia will be on better global footing with his/her eloquence and deeply analytical thought and in depth subject matter comprehension. Come to think of it, he/she has got more grey matter, IQ and EQ than the entire current govt cabinet combined.

Keep it up.......

m,  18 September 2012 at 19:35  

Cik Walla, Cik Walla you are seldom in but when you are in what a masterpiece. Sampai mulut ternganga dibuatnya. That's what I call beauty with brains, if you are a girl that is.

timor 18 September 2012 at 21:17  

'They're are asking you for another five-year mandate to rule you and your children in the way Umno has ran this country to the ground...........'

Damn you my fellow Malays if you give this UMno !

timor 18 September 2012 at 21:18  

'They're are asking you for another five-year mandate to rule you and your children in the way Umno has ran this country to the ground...........'

Damn you my fellow Malays if you give this UMno !

bruno,  18 September 2012 at 22:16  

Dato,I got some good news and some not very good news.Soybeans on Tuesday morning opening got socked again.Gapped down again 30 cents on opening.Today will again be a real nasty day for traders long soybeans.For two consecutive days gapped down,a free fall is on the way.CPO will follow too.

First the good news.For the smart small investors and Felda settlers who sold FGV shares early,thumbs up for them.

Then the not so good news.For the believers of Jibby,like our buddy QD and the rest,especially the GLC's who propped up and accumulated the shares of FGV's,very soon they will be stuck for the next decade unless they want to sell at a big loss.The skies have a funny way for punishing people who sided with the corupt.

OneMalaysian,  18 September 2012 at 23:17  

Dear Sakmongkol

We can think of mediacracy as a bastardised form of democracy. The media, instead of the people, effectively elects the government. This is because of the power conferred on mass media, much more these days because the internet has given greater coverage and reach to journalists of all sorts – the so-called fourth estate.

A free press is essential to a properly functioning democracy because it acted as a force for good by exposing wrongdoing in government and therefore acted as the ear and voice of the ordinary people.

But a bad mutation can sometimes happen, when a good fourth estate is hijacked by politicians and an unholy alliance develops between the government and members of the media. So the guard dog becomes a propaganda mouthpiece. Or, in an even more bizarre situation, this small unelected media group imposes its political views and values on society by actually bringing into power certain political parties or politicians.

In our case our watchdog has merely become an UMNO/BN lapdog.

Anonymous,  18 September 2012 at 23:48  

Walla wei. Right on the G-spot.

Now everyone together. Say it loud and clear "Walla wei".

bruno,  19 September 2012 at 03:33  

Dato,mediacracy will not be the issue now if the rakyat hold the corrupted accountable from stealing their hard earned taxpayers money to support these useless money losing concerns.Who wants to buy these newspaper from them when all they wrote are stupid wet dreams of them and their political masters.Their front doors would have been shuttered long ago if not for taxpayers money to fund their bodeking and balls licking.

Anonymous,  19 September 2012 at 05:23  

Walla can continue to walla walla away and you, Sak, can continue to thrash UMNO for eternity.

The plain fact is these people in UMNO do not care what you or other people say. They are the masters of Malaysians. It is their Allah-granted right to rob and plunder. They are walking into your house in broad daylight under the watchful eyes of every single living being, including your cat, and taking your money and everything that is valuable and walking out of your house with an air of arrogance. And you are supposed to prostrate yourself and thank them profusely for doing that.

UMNO equates "Perompak" and "Lanun".

Didn't you and Walla and millions of Malaysians see that long ago already? I find it amusing that you people are praising each other about writing masterpieces and fantastic articles ... when robbers are robbing you blind!!!

And please, shut Quiet Despair out. He is just like Ridhuan Tee, living in his own world. He is not about freedom of speech or respect for opposing views. He is a person in the abyss of depression, living in the world of denial. Spare us, the normal people from the agony of his senseless blabbering. His English sucks too!

Anonymous,  19 September 2012 at 07:43  

18 September 2012 19:35(m):
If one is a beauty with brains then one should be in the corporate world doing things to glamourise the Malaysian business fraternity...ooops, and if one is a beauty without brains then one should be busy teasing and taunting the horny MCA and UMNO guys - they have the money and for goodness' sake don't ask how they got hold of this. That's the reason UMNO and MCA want another five years.

nick 19 September 2012 at 08:40  

My dear Walla and Dato',

What a wonderful post coming from our esteem Walla, as always. I do however take offense..well not really take offense but disagree on one thing and one thing only which is your take on the state of Melaka (where my feet is on at the moment) and by the way, I would like to point out to every "feudal Malays" out there, MELAKA has NO King and has for hundreds of years without losing our Malayness and of course our Islamic faith! In other word, without a Sultan on our head (literally), it doesn't diminish our Melayu gene and didn't lose us our faith in Allah and his prophet and most important point of all, our Malayness and Islam does NOT depend on the Sultan and of course much less on UMNO itself!

But I digress, the issue I disagree with Walla is about the slumber of Malaccan and not about UMNO Bovine excrement about it (read "it" as the creature in Stephen Kings book) being the source of Malay power or the strength of Islam. Malaccan I dare say Walla, unfortunately consist mostly of senior citizen and prepubescent human being. With such high proportion of these two categories, it is undoubtedly quite difficult for many of us the in between generation (those born after merdeka but before the advent of the internet but who speaks English unlike Rastaman) to rouse them from their deep slumber. The senior citizen poses a unique problem because they were fed and fed generously with rich and exotic lies, slanders and propaganda before they went to sleep and the prepubescent ones (those who are perpetually prepubescent not unlike teens on steroid, case in mind the UMNO stalwarts and the likes of Rastam (Rasta Man was it Walla?) are by nature sleep so deeply (so deep that you might think them to be dead or in a coma) but when they are awake, are oblivious to the world that surrounds them.

So Melaka has a unique problem which would require us the same kind of effort like those that are being done in other states but sadly, the result would not be apparent in the same time period. But make no mistake of brushing off Melaka from the tsunami because even though it is a tough act to awoke those who are in deep slumber but be sure that they are being awoken and surely but s..l..ow..l..y they opened their eyes and painfully, they shake off the grogginess of having a bellyful of lies, slander and empty propaganda.

And that is why I believe that the longer that Flip=flop of a PM postpone the GE the much better. All we need is time to do our work, to double the effort and in time most of our citizen and not just those in Melaka but all over Malaysia will awaken. Najib may have his MEDIAcrazy but the internet is something else altogether. Mahathir knows it, heck even the "anak yatim tua ganyut" too knows the danger of the internet. Your blog and "for all to read" comments like Walla is the proof of that mortal danger to UMNO's Mediacracy. Mediacracy requires absolute monopoly on the flow of information, propaganda and of course of lies and slander. BUT in the imperfect Mediacracy such is Malaysia, the internet is it's antidote and poison at the same time. With the existence of free information and the means to disseminate it widely, UMNO's mediacracy is fatally flawed and oft time it's worse enemy.

Malaysia now is not similar to the times under Mahathir autocracy and it will never be again. And it's all thanks to the information superhighway and the free flow of information. No toll and no taxes and of course no Mahathir to throw everyone into Kamunting. Mediacracy or not, UMNO is going down and they will be reduced to dust! ABU, I tell you!

Nick.

Cape Tiger.

Foo 19 September 2012 at 20:46  

Datuk Sak,
Truth is always painful.

Mark Dean,  19 September 2012 at 22:04  

What's wrong with QD. He may offer views from the other side. But hey, that's freedom of speech I say. Give him space so that you all can hentam him kaw kaw. This makes this blog together with all the debates interesting and makes some of you boil.

Besides, his writings at the least, witty.

Anonymous,  20 September 2012 at 05:38  

Nurul izzah! Deputy maybe. Karpal Singh is the right candidate

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