Malaysians not easily incited

By Oon Yeoh, The Sun

THE key justification for regulating the media is that because Malaysia is a multiracial country, extra caution needs to be taken to ensure that people don’t get incited, resulting in bloody riots like what happened on May 13, 1969.

But even that incident – the worst sectarian violence in the nation’s history – was not a result of seditious comments published in newspapers. There are varying accounts of what actually sparked the violence but it wasn’t because of something the public had read.

Yet, this myth that the Malaysian public is so easily incited by what the news media reports prevails.

Last week I wrote about the uproar that ensued when Utusan Malaysia published unsubstantiated allegations that Christian leaders, in cahoots with DAP, were planning to usurp the status of Islam in the federation and to install a Christian prime minister.

Ordinary people – not just Christians – were outraged not so much because of the threat of bloody racial riots erupting but because an Umno-controlled newspaper had based such outlandish claims on postings by a couple of pro-Umno blogs.

And, to make it worse, instead of going after the publication or blogs for possibly publishing false news (a crime in this country), the initial reaction of two senior Umno ministers was to question whether there was something to the report.

Imagine if some Chinese-language newspaper were to publish unfounded allegations about a devious plot by Muslim groups in collaboration with Umno based on a couple of anti-government blogs. Would those same ministers have reacted the same way?

Utusan – which has neither provided evidence to back up its report nor apologised for shoddy reporting – has been given a warning by the Home Ministry. Online news portals dubbed that a “slap on the wrist” and user-generated comments on various online platforms show that people view this as a case of double standards – for the very reasons I highlighted above.

I mentioned in my last column that I’m not a fan of sedition laws and I don’t believe that Utusan should be charged with sedition, just as I don’t believe its editor should be charged under the ISA and carted off to Kamunting – for his own protection or otherwise.

But there should be consistency in how the news media is treated. If you’re going to take a hardline stance and aggressively investigate any article that could be construed as inflammatory, then you should do so with Utusan and pro-Umno bloggers. Similarly if you are going to be lenient towards Utusan and the pro-Umno bloggers, you should be that way towards other publications and blogs.

Between the two approaches – consistently hardline or consistently lenient – I overwhelmingly favour the latter. Let the media be free. Don’t regulate newspapers through an annual licensing regime which hangs over editors like the Sword of Damocles. Instead, let the market place determine the fate of newspapers.

If the argument is that a free press will lead to bloody racial riots, one only has to look at the US – a melting pot of different ethnic groups and creeds – to see that there is no basis for that justification.

You have an unbridled press there – one so fiercely independent that it’s even brought down a president (Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign) and led to one being impeached (Bill Clinton, by the House of Representatives though not the Senate).

The media there publishes what it wants. There is no licensing requirement. Yet, you don’t see rampant racial riots in the streets. Is that because the Americans are more sophisticated or wiser or more cultured than Malaysians? What are we – cavemen?

Let’s look back to the Utusan incident. Actually not just the Christian case, we can look back at the various provocative commentaries it’s been publishing in the past year – calling non-Malays pendatang, urging for a 1Melayu movement, and so on.

Have the non-Malays rioted? Have the Malays? Did the FRU have to be called in to suppress racial clashes?

None of this has happened because this is not the 60s. It’s not the 70s, the 80s, the 90s or even the 00s. It’s 2011 and the internet penet-ration rate in this country is no longer low. People get news and views not just through the regulated media like newspapers, radio and TV but through the unregulated online media on laptops, tablet computers and mobile phones. They can listen to podcasts. They can watch YouTube videos. They share all of this through Facebook and Twitter.

Malaysians are now more educated than ever. And now, thanks to the internet, they have access to knowledge and a diversity of opinions that generations before never had. The notion that the Malaysian public is easily incited is a myth. It’s time we lay it to rest.