The failed boycott the mainstream media campaign

That same night I received a phone call informing me about the council’s decision and I rushed to Harakah’s office in Jalan Pahang for an emergency midnight meeting. Zunar, Zul Sulong and Rustam were also there.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin
It started in November 1999. I was in the media committee headed by PRM leader Rustam Sani. Every noon in the run-up to the November 1999 general election we held a press conference in PKR’s office in Phileo Damansara.

On the second day of the press conference, I threw TV3 out of the office. It was recorded by the TV3 cameraman and played on TV that night and the few nights thereafter.

The party was most upset with me. I was ordered to allow TV3 to cover the press conference even though they twist and misquote what we said.

This is about respecting the freedom of the media, I was told. If we boycott or ban TV3 then we are practicing censorship and are therefore no better than the government.

I was told Rustam Sani wanted to resign as Chairman of the media committee ‘unless Raja Petra can be brought under control’.

I was told to shut up and behave or else Rustam wants me removed.

In 2000, Rustam Sani, Zulkilfi Sulong (editor of the Harakah), Zunar (the cartoonist) and I planned to launch a ‘Boycott TV3, Utusan Malaysia and NST’ campaign.

It was supposed to be an opposition effort.

However, the Barisan Alternatif council met and ruled that the opposition coalition would not support the planned boycott. We were told to call it off.

That same night I received a phone call informing me about the council’s decision and I rushed to Harakah’s office in Jalan Pahang for an emergency midnight meeting. Zunar, Zul Sulong and Rustam were also there.

We decided not to abort it and to go ahead with the planned boycott campaign. But we would do it under the Reformasi Movement banner instead.

It was launched at Azmin Ali’s office in Gombak and Nurul Izzah Anwar gave what was probably her first public ceramah (she sneaked out of her university to come address the gathering).

During the PKR Convention in Kelana Jaya, we put up notices banning the mainstream media -- in particular TV3, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, and NST -- from the convention hall.

They complained to the party and Dr Chandra Muzaffar ordered all the notices removed and for the mainstream media to be allowed in to the hall.

The party scolded me and said that we must never ban the mainstream media from opposition events. They must be allowed to cover the events. In fact, we must engage the mainstream media in spite of the problem of spinning, misquoting and distortions in their reports.

The opposition is fighting for freedom of the media: I was lectured. So, if we ban or boycott or refuse to engage the mainstream media, then we are not practicing what we preach.

It is important that we demonstrate what we mean by independence of the media by first of all engaging the mainstream media.

Since then, I have always spoken to the mainstream media (even to Jocelyn Tan of The Star). But mostly it has been the print media. This is the second time I have managed to speak to the Malaysian electronic media (TV3 -- because this is the first time they asked to speak to me). I have, however, appeared on TV1 before (and of course many times on the foreign electronic media).

The question is: is the opposition right in saying that we must NOT ban or boycott the mainstream media or were we right in saying that we should?