Lets have a look at the New Straits Times. Now, before you start calling me a hypocrite, I did not buy the newspaper itself. Just because I boycott the mainstream the media does not necessarily mean that my school does. However, if you were reading any of the Malaysian newspapers actively in the last two months, you should have noticed that the BN regime has been making a lot of false statements about the BERSIH 3.0 rally. Accusations ranging from plots to overthrow a 'democratically elected' regime to communist agendas were spewed all over the headlines. Even as the dust of the rally settled down, accusations continued to flow from the New Straits Times and Berita Terkini. While it is true that the attendants of the rally turned violent, the newspapers failed to mention the fact that it was the police force who caused trouble first by hurling tear gas and assault rally attendants for no apparent reason at all. If you lurk around Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, you will find plenty of evidence. The newspapers failed to mention that and RTM even took the initiative to twist the facts in a 'documentary' titled 'BERSIH 3.0 Yang Kotor'.
"So, how is the mainstream media biased?"
And look! All of a sudden, Mahathir returns to the political scene right before GE-13 when he should be enjoying his retirement. All of a sudden, he's blabbing about how the BN's leaders are the nation's heroes and how the opposition. Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to run pro-BN headlines along with the usual anti-opposition crap. Let us use these headlines and articles as examples.
New Straits Times: Don't resort to zero-sum mentality, youth told
http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/don-t-resort-to-zero-sum-mentality-youth-told-1.97878
If we read this article properly, we are told to stay silent, we are told that the BR1M scheme is actually helpful when the money for BR1M is actually being transferred to the already sky-rocketing national debts and we are told that the government's policies have something for everyone when that is clearly bullshit and that can be seen in Borneo.
The Star: Govt is realistic, says Najib
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/6/22/nation/20120622072521&sec=nation
Note that they make no mention of the poor living standards, the mindset of the Malaysian people and the fact that the proposed economic reforms are actually VERY unrealistic. National debt is at all-time high and Malaysia runs the risk of becoming bankrupt by 2020 and yet Najib still dares to promise us higher GDPs?
Dewan Masyarakat: PRU ke-13: Perlukah Pemerhati Asing?
http://dwnmasyarakat.dbp.my/?p=3076
If you understand BM, you'll understand that this article is clearly aimed at defaming anti-government protestors who supported rallies like BERSIH 3.0, Himpunan Hijau and anti-Peaceful Assembly Bill Act. It also aims to attack the opposition parties even further and that is quite clear especially when you see the words 'Tun Dr. Mahathir'. The article also contradicts itself as Malaysia has been involved in foreign affairs before. The anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, the peaceful movements in Congo, War on Terror, the boycotting of Jewish products and military involvement in the Somalian relief operations.
Dewan Masyarakat: "Provokasi" sebagai senjata politik
http://dwnmasyarakat.dbp.my/?p=1482
If we take a look at the first paragraph, the author is clearly hell-bent on defaming the DAP. It even proceeds to call them 'irresponsible writers who are trying to take away the rights of the Malays'.
As we can see, all 4 of these articles are hell-bent on spreading the Barisan regime's propaganda and defaming the opposition parties and demonstrators. However, note that the newspapers never said that Najib tried to bribe Sibu nor did they say anything about pro-BN demonstrators who never get into any trouble at all. Even TV3's Berita Terkini has been turned into the BN's political frontline already which is why most of the more educated Malaysians will spend more time reading online news outlets like The Malaysian Insider, MalaysiaKini and Free Malaysia Today instead of the mainstream outlets. That being said, Utusan Melayu, which is known to make a lot of defamatory statements and has broken almost every law imaginable for a printing press, remains alive today. The majority of the Malaysian population remain oblivious to the fact that the mass media is biased despite the fact that it is staring right in front of them. This is because whenever we look at the newspapers and broadcasted news on TV and radio, we expect it to be true. What do? Ini ialah akhbar rasmi ma. But of course, this inevitably leads to the manipulation of facts and propaganda starts spreading through these channels.
To this day, Utushit remains untouched.
On the subject of oppression, anyone who opposes the neo-imperialist Barisan Nasional regime is automatically considered as a potential target for the government to exercise their abuse on. It does not necessarily have to be done in the 'underground' way. There are plenty of draconian laws which gives the Barisan Nasional regime plenty of room to exercise their oppression legally. To name a few, we can look at some of the most ridiculous laws in Malaysia which includes:
The Police Act
The Peaceful Assembly Act
The Priting Presses & Publications Act
The Sedition Act
The Official Secrets Act
The Evidence Act
The Communications & Multimedia Act and Rais' future amendments to it
The Education Institutions(Discipline) Act
Sounds like a mouthful, right? In reality, each and every one of these draconian laws are related to the people as it applies to every single jackass in the nation. Of course, BN cronies are excluded from these laws but what did you expect? Cookies? This is Malaysia after all.
So let's have a look at Section 10 of the Education Institutions(Discipline) Act.
(3) No person, while he is a student of an Institution, shall
express or do anything which may be construed as expressing
support, sympathy or opposition to any political party or trade
union or as expressing support or sympathy with any unlawful
organization, body or group of persons.
(4) No organization, body or group of students of an Institution
which is established by, under or in accordance with this Act, or
any other organization, body or group of students of an Institution,
shall express or do anything which may be construed as expressing
support, sympathy or opposition to any political party or trade
union or as expressing support or sympathy with any unlawful
organization, body or group of persons.
Note that it clearly states that any individual who is still studying, be it in primary or tertiary education sectors, is not allowed to express his opinion on political issues at all. No, not even the foreign ones. Yes, I can understand 10-2 where it states that no student is allowed to be part of any political, trade union, organization or society but seriously? You're not even allowed to express your opinion on political issues at all as a student? Freedom of speech my ass. In fact, this means that you don't have the right to voice out your opinion at all as most issues will inevitably lead to the government and politics. It doesn't matter if its just an environmental issue, an educational issue, an economic issue, a cultural issue, the list goes on and on. Heck, in Malaysia, even an issue about poverty can be related to politics. To make things worse, section 11 of the same act forbids charity work. Meanwhile in the Communications & Multimedia Act, section 233 prohibits indecent speech. What indecent speech is according to the Malaysian law definition is currently unknown. This means that any idiot can pull off a stunt by calling criticising the country and the BN regime indecent speech. The Sedition and Official Secrets acts allow the government to arrest anyone who is deemed to be 'unpatriotic' and goes against the BN regime's interests.
It gets better from here. As the 13th general elections approach us, an increasing amount of draconian laws are being implemented by the Barisan Nasional regime in order to oppress the opposing rakyat. The Internal Security Act has been merged into the Police Act and modified into something worse. The Peaceful Assembly Act allows the corrupt BN regime's leaders to dictate whether a rally is peaceful or not and recently, Rais has been trying to implement censorship into the Communications & Multimedia Act. Oh, and did I forget to mention the fact that MOO MOO told schoolteachers that action will be taken on those who voiced out their opinion on political subjects and told them to shut up and just teach whatever they are told to teach?
"Malaysia has it's own Homeland Security too. How...... cute."
All of these laws encourage dictatorship and oppression. In addition, Malaysia is an Islamic country on paper which means that any idiot from the neo-imeprialist BN regime can claim that they are 'accountable for their own actions' and will have to 'answer to Allah when the time comes'. While most of the educated Malaysians will not buy this kind of bullshit, the old-fashioned, brainwashed uncles and aunties along with the kampung folk will certainly buy it. People, we must fight for our rights and demand it to be returned to us if we want to retain it. We can't simply sit behind a television screen and watch it all happen. No pain, no gain. You want it, work for it.
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