COMMENT The journalists’ union is stirring. Newspaper people are afraid of the growing reach of Internet news, and how it will affect their livelihoods.
They want the government to ease up on press controls and to allow greater press freedom, for fear that otherwise circulation will drop even further as people flock to the Internet for more open discussion.
Well and good. Journalists should always fight to uphold free speech and press freedom, as a matter of principle.
But what if the government thinks like this: why open up the press, why not just tighten up on the Internet instead? It may be cynical to think so, but this is a very divided government, and we shouldn’t count on it being able to do something positive when they can do something negative instead, because it’s easier and expedient.
More open discussion may change perceptions among rural voters, and cost them seats at the election. That’s the biggest fear among Umno-BN politicians. That’s why they always say NGOs and others are “making the people confused”.
What they mean is that rural people are questioning them. And sometimes they don’t have the answer. The substantial rural vote is what props them up. So why should they change?
It takes courage
It takes real courage and real confidence to allow a free press and more open discussion. Mahathir Mohamad, for all his bluster and big talk, never had the courage to do so.
It doesn’t take courage to shout at faraway Jews who won’t shout back. But it takes real courage to have a free press and freedom of speech.
Mahathir chose the safer, cowardly path. He shut up the press but allowed urban voices loose on the Internet where few could hear.
Times have changed. If the press are not allowed greater flexibility and more freedom, there is a real danger that the main Umno-owned newspapers (UM, BH, NST) may just fade away, leaving only Metro and Kosmo.
The masses would read only about sex, crime, Bung Mokhtar and Ibrahim Ali and other UFOs, and amuse themselves that way.
For sure, it will keep their minds closed. But for sure, that’s the cowardly way. Can the government show some courage, for a change?
The writer is a veteran journalist who blogs under the pen name uppercaise in his blog under the same name.
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