Is Umno planning to shut down all the Pakatan media?
Viktor Wong, Malaysia Chronicle
First you see Suara Keadilan’s publishing permit not being renewed because of its critical reports about the Umno-BN and its leaders. Now, it is reported that PAS newspaper Harakah is next on the list. Harakah has already been issued a show-cause letter by the home affairs ministry. Will The Rocket be next?
Currently, the traditional mainstream media in our nation are either owned or controlled by Umno-BN or are pro Umno-BN. Because of the growing influence of Pakatan Rakyat amongst the people and the overly one-sided reports of the Umno-BN press, the majority of Malaysians no longer find their newspapers relevant or worth buying anymore.
Malaysians of today want a well-balanced source of information not only from one side but from both sides of the political divide so that they can review and make their own decisions for the future of the nation – to which they are rightly entitled to based on the Federal Constitution. This is what civil society considers as Freedom of Thought.
That is why most of us are now shifting our focus to alternative sources of information like the newspapers published by PKR, DAP and PAS, as well as the online news portals in order to obtain the other side of the story.
So, is this what the Umno-BN federal government is planning to do? Shut down all the alternative media, one by one, in order to prevent the people from getting to the truth. If Malaysians know more about the true situation in the country, Umno-BN may suffer in the next general election.
The risks are indeed high that the federal government will shut down all the Pakatan newspapers because they are afraid their wrongdoings, abuses of power, mismanagement and corruption will be exposed to the public. Umno-BN should certainly be afraid because they will lose all their votes if their negative elements are dug out and exposed one by one.
But all is not lost. Even if Umno-BN successfully shuts down all the Pakatan newspapers and ban them from the public, Malaysians can still surf the Internet for online news portals like the Suara-Keadilan.com, Harakahdaily.net, Malaysia Chronicle, Selangorkini, Malaysiakini, The Malaysian Insider, and so forth.
