Abdullah’s legacy: From 104th to 132nd in press freedom
Not surprisingly, Malaysia has dropped from 124th last year to 132nd place in 2008 in the RSF press freedom ranking.
Among ten South-East Asian nations, Malaysian remains in 5th place while Timor-Leste, which has the freest press in the region, showed the biggest improvement in the global rankings, shooting up 29 places to 65th. Thailand climbed 11 places to finish above Malaysia at 124th place. Singapore, Laos, Vietnam and Burma prop up the regional table with the least press freedom - unchanged from last year.
For all the talk of reforms under Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia’s press freedom ranking has actually dropped from 104th place in 2003, the year Abdullah took over, to 132nd place now. That’s a plunge of 28 places.
Abdullah’s brightest year was in 2006, when Malaysia’s ranking reached a high of 92nd spot, making it the second freest in South-East Asia after Timor-Leste. But since then, we have sunk 42 places within the space of two years to reach 134th! What happened, Abdullah? Did your administration have to crack down on mounting disenchantment when your promised reforms failed to take off fast enough?
Here is the RSF global ranking for 2008: Click Here
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