Najib shoots pre-election messengers

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Oct 18, 2012

If the coalition underestimated the reach and influence of the online media and websites at the 2008 polls, this time it is making no such oversight.

Anil Netto, Asia Times

PENANG – Malaysiakini, a leading independent news portal, and Suaram, a human-rights organization, have come under heavy government pressure in the run-up to what is expected to be a hotly contested general election in Malaysia. Both independent groups have reported on politically damaging scandals surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak and his ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party.

In particular, Suaram has exposed and Malaysiakini reported allegations of irregularities in the procurement of Scorpene submarines from France at a time when Najib served as defense minister. The murder of a Mongolian woman, allegedly the lover of a Najib aide connected to the deal, has raised the political stakes of the scandal.

Suaram has taken the issue to France with the help of French lawyers and initiated a high-level judicial investigation into the Scorpene deal. Malaysiakini has provided considerable coverage of the exposes surrounding the deal, as well as countless other instances of alleged corruption and abuse of power in Najib’s administration.

Both have come under concerted criticism by establishment figures and the mainstream media. An official investigation involving half a dozen government agencies has been initiated against Suaram. Authorities are pursuing allegations that Suaram paid bribes to civil servants for access to secret government information.

Home Minister Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has said the investigations are not linked to Suaram’s actions in the submarine scandal. He and other government critics have charged that Suaram’s and Malaysiakini’s receipt of foreign funds, including from the US Congress-supported National Endowment for Democracy, has undermined their independence and influenced their agendas.

In particular, Malaysiakini’s link with the Media Development Loan Fund, which owns a 29% holding in the news portal, has recently been put under the spotlight in the state-influenced mainstream media. One of MDLF’s funders is the Open Society Foundations, a US-based organization founded by philanthropist and financier George Soros that promotes the development of civil society in developing countries.

Soros has long been a convenient whipping boy in Malaysia. In the early 1990s during the Mahathir Mohamad administration, Malaysia’s Bank Negara bet on the British pound against Soros’ position and ended up losing unknown billions of ringgit. The bad blood behind the scenes bubbled over when the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis broke out, with Mahathir famously referring to Soros as a “moron” for his alleged role in undermining the region’s currencies, including the ringgit.

But the charges of associating with Soros don’t have the same political resonance today. Malaysiakini noted last week that Najib himself met with Soros two years ago during a visit to New York. Still, UMNO politicians are taking aim at Western funding agencies to target critical civil-society and media groups and distract popular attention from their own political troubles ahead of national polls, which must be held by the first half of next year.