BN’s idea of `responsible’ sources of news-is it entirely only pro-government news?

For many years Sarawakians have been complaining about the 1-sided news from its mainstream media due to monopoly of the media licenses by either logging companies or political parties who side with BN. In this context how do people see an advice from a Minister that the reporters should be `responsible’ in sourcing their news? If the past `allowable’ news were any guide the advice is meant to allow sourcing of news from government or ruling parties’ sources. But this is not what democracy is all about. In a democracy all people’s opinions should be presented for others to decide. The media is so important that an American president said that he would choose a good media over a good government! The `4th estate’ can play an important role to correct government policies if it is allowed the press freedom, without the politicians breathing down their necks-often literally in some occasions! For such politicians the only way where they can’t make much noise is when the critical news is reported from outside the country, over internet, or broadcasted/published in West Malaysian media! Just after offering his advice on `responsible’ news sourcing Peter Chin handed the journalists association a Rm20k cheque. Is it his idea of `responsible’ news sourcing or pay-packet journalism?

Be responsible in sourcing for news, journalists told

Read Full Post »

Sarawak EC boast its blindness to complaints against 10th Sarawak state elections?

Sarawak EC’s chief Dato Takun Sunggah boasted that the 10th Sarawak state elections was run well with no complaints from election petitions and no disputes between EC workers and polling agents. On both counts he was factually wrong: while there was only 1 election petition there were numerous cases where election petitions were avoided due to lack of confidence in the Election judges, where few complaints had been upheld in the last half a century! Secondly there were heated arguments in a number of cases from nomination to vote announcements eg in Muara Tuang-nomination disputes ran to 3.00pm, Senadin, vote announcement disputes ran into the middle of the night!

Read Full Post »

Bersih march send before-shock to BN and police!

Even it is still weeks before the Bersih march were to take place the anti-democratic forces in the nation’s capital are running helter skelter to threaten, distract, challenge etc the mammoth rally which they can’t stop, match nor argue against. The ruling party UMNO try to brand the rally as a threat to national security-yet they are all OK with a previous million-youth rally in Putrajaya where allegedly RM28mil was used. In that rally the UMNO president Najib used the opportunity to call upon the gathered youth -said to number 2000, to defend Putajaya for BN-showing that the government sponsored rally was nothing more or less than a BN party rally. UMNO also stick to another line that the Bersih rally-optimistically estimated at 100 000, will disrupt traffic and disrupt business, while the million-youth assembly was said by the same spokeperson to be incapable of doing the same. They also claim that rallies like this will scare away foreign investors-forgetting that foreign investors come from many democratic countries themselves where rallies are every day affairs!  The prejudice and hypocrisy of the anti-democratic party is becoming more and more glaring by the day-and those who don’t believe in it are no longer bothered about it!

Read Full Post »

Unaccountable power can be abused-and has been abused!

James Masing reportedly said that the state government need not give reason to bar non-Sarawakians from Sarawak, as though this is to uphold the constitutional rights of Sarawakians. However any simple reasoning will shows that any unaccountable power can be and has been abused-including barring non-Sarawakians from Sarawak. It is reasonable for barring people on security ground if there is basis to believe that certain person pose security risk. But politicians can abuse the power by barring persons whom they don’t like -which can range from people (judging from past records) who are Member of Parliament, election observers, civil society members etc. The ground for barring them can be purely to stop fair criticisms on eg questionable conduct of elections. Nothing to do with security. It could also be accountability and transparency issues under concern of good governance. Issues relating to the CM’s well-reported personal wealth have been asked in media, even by Sarawakians themselves. To bar non-Sarawakians who ask similar questions obviously represent an abuse of power! It would be contrary to uphold Sarawakians’ rights and interests to bar the people concerned while it only serve the purpose of some politicians who want to cover up these embarrassing issues from becoming public knowledge!

So it does not make sense to bar people from Sarawak without giving any reason. Unless James Masing is also benefiting from the same politicians who enrich themselves at the people’s expense!

No entry our right

Read Full Post »