Critically read the newspapers

I read an article discussing or rather lamenting the fate of Malay language newspaper. The writer laments that although Malay language has been elevated to be the official language in this country but Malay newspapers including the one from which I read the article have been languishing below other newspaper to the extent the author claims that Malay newspapers as low quality or third class papers behind Chinese and English newspapers.

It is very surprising and indeed funny when people like the author seems oblivious to the present scenario where the community particularly the Malays themselves are shunning such papers as well as other media. This is not because they hate or have a particular hated for Malay but simply because people are sceptical and have high distrust of the contents.

Fortunately and not surprising Malay based contents in the Internet are on a steady rise. People are no longer depend on the major or conventional medias like newspapers and television not only because of the bias and untrue or half-true reporting by the mainstream medias. Majority of main stream media are controlled or inclined towards the BN held government and thus they are only reporting one side of the story unlike MalaysiaKini for instance which cover both sides, the government and opposition.

Being in a fast moving world, information plays a very significant role in educating the people. By educating here I mean the people are allowed to critically accept information coming from both the government and opposition. Such opportunity enables the people to tread on certain issue carefully and not jumping into conclusion there and there. Main stream media tend to direct the mind of the people towards the government or the coalition which ruled the government without giving or allowing other opinions or views. Any views contrary to the ones held by the coalition are deemed lies, untrue and to certain extent dangerous.

Without the Internet, issues like the taking over of the National Heart Institute by Sime Darby will go unopposed and perhaps unnoticed by the people since the main stream media are bent of telling one side of the coin rather than allowing the public to see the whole picture. Even the reforms as claimed by the Prime Minister have its roots in the once alternative media like online news portals and blogs. Without the exposure and revelation by the now mainstream media, those reforms will never be done or even unheard of.

If we surf the net , we'll realised that many of those blogs are in Malay and unlike the media controlled and owned by the government they offer something extra, something that will not be available in the conventional media. Admittedly, not every piece of information in the net are credible and much of them are hearsay but some avid bloggers have gone through the pain of checking and affirming the information they are posting. Depending solely on the conventional media will never be enough and gradually we'll just be like zombies - following and believing everything we read, listen or heard.

Once, in my younger days I consider myself a die hard fanatic for the coalition. I never believed in anything that the opposition or even those NGos are saying. To me, they are the enemies of the people trying to create disunity and chaos. In fact I admire TDM for very to the extent that I wrote a poem commemorating the passing of the late Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad, DRB -HICOM founder but in the poem I remember praising TDM for the late Tan Sri's success , which may be true.

Past should remain the past yet we need to learn from it thus I am grateful for the choice and opportunity that I am enjoying today - independence and freedom from the conventional media. Once I never missed Buletin Utama, which is my favourite source of information but nowadays it will be days and even months before I listen to them. The net has been my friend since and I believe because of the net I become more informed and learned than during my naive years courting with the conventional media.

To summarise, it is not because the newspapers are in Malay that they become third class and shunned by the mass but merely because of their biased and low rate reporting. To the writer , if you happen to read this - open up your mind, nobody is questioning Malay or anything related to it but we merely questioned the behaviour of those who claimed to be Malays!

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it