The heads and tails of the matter
by Eyes Wide Open
One of the earliest to break the cow’s head protest story was The Malaysian Insider. Their report was complete with photos, motives and names of the protest leaders. It also did not cringe from some pretty grisly shots of the cows head.
However the MSM only saw fit to present the highly provocative protest as something of a non-event. The NST published a photo of some people holding a protest banner (one of the tame ones), while the Star only mentioned the protest in passing with a small 2-column, page bottom article in the last few pages of the national news section. Neither one mentioned the cow’s head or the protestors’ bloodthristy threats.
Utusan Malaysia has this to say in its Saturday edition:
200 penduduk bantah bina kuil
Kira-kira 200 penduduk Seksyen 23 di sini dan beberapa ahli badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) hari ini berarak ke Bangunan Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri (SUK) sebagai tanda membantah cadangan pembinaan kuil di kawasan itu.
Perarakan itu merupakan simbolik kepada usaha penduduk di kawasan tersebut mempertahankan pendirian mereka.
Kumpulan itu mula berkumpul di Masjid Negeri selepas selesai solat Jumaat. Mereka kemudian berarak kira-kira 500 meter menuju ke bangunan SUK sambil membawa sepanduk melahirkan rasa tidak puas hati terhadap kerajaan negeri.
Selepas beberapa pemimpin kumpulan itu menyuarakan rasa tidak puas hati mereka, kumpulan tersebut bersurai secara aman kira-kira 3 pukul petang.
The article then goes on to highlight the residents’ grouses and reasons why they don’t want the temple in Section 23 Shah Alam. The article also has this quote:
Pengerusi Badan Bertindak Penduduk Seksyen 23, Ahmad Mahyuddin Manaf berkata, perarakan tersebut bertujuan menggesa kerajaan negeri membatalkan pembinaan kuil di kawasan mereka dan memindahkannya ke Seksyen 22 di sini yang merupakan lokasi asal rumah ibadat tersebut.
Besides the obvious padding of the numbers (200 protestors instead of 50, 500m walk instead of 300m) it wasn’t surprising that it followed what seems to be the official line across the board – no cow’s head, standing up for Muslim rights, PR is a lousy government.
Nothing surprising there. While some may argue that selective reporting could do much to diffusing the situation, others would argue that the country has a right to know what mischief some people are up to. But that’s a story for another day.
Not surprisingly also, many senior UMNO leaders have spoken out against the protestor’s blatant insult to Hindus, most notably our Prime Minister DS Najib. He’d better seeing that he stepped into Batu Caves for a festival featuring a 50-foot poster of him!
However, what is surprising is the English-language UMNO mouthpiece NST featuring this report in its Sunday edition:
