Joshua Wong, Malaysian Democracy and Bigots
Joshua Wong’s recent resignation as ntv7’s producer of Editor’s Time is another vivid reminder of how the bizarre and twisted logic of bigots – particularly those condoned by UMNO – in this country tends to trump free speech, and any prospects for building any real democratic practices.
By G. Krishnan
Frankly, I was not exactly disgusted by the fact that Joshua apparently experienced political interference on matters about his programme. That, after all, is to be expected, given our long legacy of government-controlled media. Should any of us really be surprised by any revelation of UMNO-related manipulation or interference with the press? You’d really have to be living on planet Mars all this while if you’re actually shocked by what happened to Joshua. The fact is, censorship in the mainstream media is the norm; I’d be shocked if there was no censorship occurring in the mainstream media and if journalists in these media actually had professional autonomy and independence. So given that’s the case, what’s the big deal?
Actually, I wanted to remind you, in case you missed the real issue here, that what is telling about this episode is how it reveals the bizarre and twisted logic used to invoke control on journalists and free speech in general.
Remember the controversy over the Bar Council’s forum on religious conversion in 2008? There we had a mob of some 300 protesters outside the Bar Council threatening to storm into the forum in order to disrupt a perfectly legal and peaceful gathering to discuss, in a civilised manner, a perfectly appropriate issue affecting our lives. And what was the authorities’ response? Well, so as the aroused mob of protesters are not “provoked,” into doing anything violent and illegal, the police actually convinced the participant’s of the legal forum to disband! Yes, it was not the mob that was asked to disband from its illegal protest or for intimidating participants at a perfectly legal gathering; instead it was the lawyers who were forced to abandon the forum, censored, and denied their right to partake in the forum.
On that day, bigotry prevailed. Worst yet, free speech was choked because bigots were apparently offended by a mere forum to deliberate and discuss a most relevant topic.
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