Oh baffling times are here

 

To Lutfi, the seizure of copies of Harakah, Suara Keadilan and The Rocket a few weeks ago by the home ministry is “part of a concerted BN effort in preventing news from PAS, PKR and DAP from reaching the masses.” In particular, in Malay majority rural areas.

 

BN, said Lutfi, is already taking steps to keep their hold on rural areas with GE14 in mind. He admitted the ministry’s action is within laws and regulations but nevertheless termed such law and regulations “karut marut”. Put simply – “ridiculous”.

 

“Because whatever so-called transformation the government said they did was just superficial. 

 

“For example, permits. In the first place, to me there should not be permits. But, anyway, I do not want to dwell on that and accept it as it is. The PM announced newspaper permits need not be renewed. Meaning the annual renewal is gone but all other conditions remain.

 

“In the case of Harakah, conditions like we can’t sell it to non-PAS members and only sell at party premises are all obstacles and hindrance. And the home ministry are using these conditions to put a leash on us,” he said.

 

Lutfi said Harakah had met such conditions “to our best ability”, but admitted the newspaper is being sold to non-PAS members who buy it at “ordinary newsstands”.

 

“Our vendors can’t be asking people if they are PAS members before selling Harakah to them but not long ago we had special racks for Harakah to say it’s for PAS members only.”

 

But the recent operations by the authorities, said Lutfi, “are making our regular vendors scared as they can be fined for selling Harakah to non-party members. It’s burning a hole in our pockets, business-wise, and politically, Pakatan’s messages are not reaching the people”.

 

And sadly, said Lutfi, the Pakatan leadership seems indifferent towards this “continuous and systematic disturbance on the circulation of its official party publications”.

 

“Pakatan must see this as a serious problem. Pakatan must take this issue up even to the international arena and come up with an action plan,” said the editor.

 

Lutfi has some ideas of his own but all that needs endorsement from the Pakatan leadership.

 

“Harakah is a twice weekly publication while Suara Keadilan is published weekly. Perhaps we can work out a schedule and together with The Rocket to have a production flow. Or we can have non-serial daily publications which do not require a permit. We must work around the problem and also be innovative in distributing our products.”

 

That apart, Lutfi and several “Pakatan-friendly” newsmen opined that the quality of reporting must be improved.  So too Pakatan Web TV outfits. 

 

“Now is the time to do it. Don’t wait for GE 14. By then the field would be crowded and voters would have already been fed with all sorts of information,” said one of the newsmen.

 

Money is definitely one of the problem but to Lutfi, there are ways to raise the much-needed funds.

 

But before all that, Pakatan leaders will have to admit the problem being faced by their publications now is serious. For a leadership which many feel is “media savvy”, their so called “indifferent attitude” (as seen by Lutfi) is, to borrow Lutfi’s word – baffling