A vast majority of Malaysians, especially the young and the educated, after the 2008 political tsunami hardly believes anything spun and spewed by the UMNO-controlled mainstream media due to its well known cognitive and social manipulation about anything and everything in its favour with absolute disregard to the professional codes of ethics of journalism, and ‘legitimate’ forms of interaction and communication.
Most Malaysians (I mean only MOST Malaysians and not ALL Malaysians) know that UMNO’s mainstream media is nothing but ‘loads of crap’. What and which are those mainstream media, is anyone’s guess. Professionally, we can’t just dismiss UMNO-controlled mainstream media as ‘loads of crap’ and forget about it. A careful study of the ‘loads of crap’ will easily reveal UMNO’s shrewdness and the well mastered art of media manipulation in their favour.
Any literate person who is exposed to the mainstream media would know UMNO’s manipulation through media takes place in many different forms and a host of other genres. From 1-Malaysia ‘kosong’ rhetoric to ‘crocodile tears’ for Gaza, name any piece of news, the media manipulation is there. News lacking details, incomplete and irrelevant, distorted truth, biased, inflammatory, seditious and insidious write-ups, deliberate omission and intentional pretermission of vital pieces of information are nothing but many different forms of the manipulative art mastered by UMNO to continue deceiving the public.
All these manipulative control of the media, as we know, is solely aimed at retaining UMNO’s power in politics and its domination over the public. Through media manipulation, UMNO deceives and influences the public into believing that UMNO is still relevant (to the Malays only of course) and that it is being just and fair to the ‘others’ (the sickest joke in Malaysia today!) The kind of media manipulation exercised by UMNO not only helps to control the minds of those in the dark, uninformed and unexposed to the alternative media on the internet, but also their beliefs and indirectly their actions (read as vote for BN) based on such manipulated beliefs. In a society which is so segregated (UMNO being the segregationist of course) by race, religion, culture, etc. and sees everything through the tainted communal glasses…. such as Malaysia, UMNO, in fact, does not need to make much effort to fan communal fire to divide and rule.
The most striking, notorious and extreme example is the manipulation of the recent Anuar Sarip case. The High Court on 30 June 2010, awarded 1.4 million to housewife, Suzana Mohd Aris, 43, the widow of Anuar Sarip, for his 1999 death in the police lock-up. Baradan Kuppusamy perorated that this unprecedented award goes a long way to make the point that citizens enjoy rights even, or especially, while under detention and it is the duty of the authorities to safeguard these rights.
What a monumental example of UMNO’s media manipulation and distortion of facts! That particular line could be very emotionally appealing to the rural folks and the non-netizens at least, whose general and political knowledge solely depends on what is being spun and spewed by UMNO’s mainstream media. The first question that comes to mind reading that line is why were the rights of hundreds, if not thousands, of other detainees and murder suspects who died in police custody and shootouts not similarly exercised or respected? If at all there is a law protecting such rights of detainees and criminal suspects, why were the hundreds and thousands of police men and women who violated the said law(s) convicted and prosecuted upon the many deaths of the police brutality victims?
Which Malaysian could ever forget Kugan’s motionless body lying in the cold corpse chamber in a hospital mortuary with severe bodily injuries that miserably failed to prove even an iota of humanity was present among the murderers, whom the UMNO government is still protecting. “… citizens enjoy rights even, or especially, while under detention…?” I beg your pardon Mr. Baradan! This specious news conveniently conceals the alarming police brutality that has claimed so many lives, especially that of the Indian youths, in the prime of their lives. Even in the case of Anuar Sarip, justice was only served to the family of the victim, after 11 years of battle! Thank God, P.Uthayakumar, who has rightly found the Human Rights Party Malaysia was there to fight for the victim and his family, without giving up for a good long eleven years!
It is no exaggeration that P.Uthayakumar is the most outstanding human rights activist and lawyer the nation has seen. It is unbelievable that this man, who has now become a household name of Indian families and well-known by all other Malaysians, did not for even a moment, in his path advocating human rights and justice for all, swayed or distracted, even after scores of police arrests since 2003 and 514 days in ISA detention.
This was the same man who even earlier than 1999, way back in 1994, defended the police abuse and malicious prosecution case involving one Abdul Wahap bin Lakmit Hamzah bin Adam (himself an ex policeman) whose son died as a result of police over zealous enforcement. In fact, his very first High Court case involved a coconut trader, Ho Kwai See (28) who also died in police custody! Such heart-wrenching cases that he has single-mindedly and single-handedly handled against the brutal police force are just too many in this 18 years!
This was also the same man who, at the height of Reformasi movement, defended hundreds of Reformasi protestors, so much so that Harakah carried a feature article of ‘P.Uthayakumar Peguam Reformasi.’ Unfortunately, the reformists including their Supremo leader, have all forgotten the true humanistic heart of this man that defended them. Today, most of them sing a different tune although it is so evidently clear that this man has always been steadfast in his struggle! His path of humanity has been so straight and unswerving this 18 years! Could we find another man in Malaysian history who has such determination, perseverance, fearlessness, gutsiness, courage and compassion, able and willing to fight for the victims of human rights violations, regardless of race and religion, at the cost of his own life? Yet, he is conveniently labeled as racist by UMNO, DAP and PKR!
For what this man stands tall for, the UMNO’s mainstream media, Bernama and Berita Harian, in their news report on the same case, very manipulatively blacked out P.Uthayakumar’s name to cleverly snuff out the truth and impair the public’s understanding that he is NOT A RACIST as propagated by UMNO, DAP and PKR! UMNO’s poltroonery (cowardly) act of omitting such a vital piece of information is absolutely driven by an ignoble fear. Should the public read and realise the real humanistic character of P. Uthayakumar, then UMNO will soon be doomed as the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Sabahans and Sarawakians, all alike, will most definitely rally behind him for his remarkable job going against the brutality of the police force and tyranny of the powers that be which has brought and caused unimaginable pain and sufferings to the whole nation for the past 53 years! Isn’t fear the parent of cruelty? It will be too costly for UMNO’s Barisan to include the name of P.Uthayakumar in their precious propaganda of serving justice to Malaysians in the name of humanity! UMNO can only survive in today’s politics as long as it can instil fear among the Malays that P.Uthayakumar is a hardcore racist and a threat to the national security!
With UMNO’s full access to the public discourse, such as parliamentary debates, news, TV shows, advertisements, internet and so on, it will continue fooling the public through its well mastered art of media manipulation. This discursive media manipulation by the dominant UMNO geared towards the reproduction of their power will continue as long as the public fails to be wise enough to resist such manipulations and be shrewd enough to know the truth behind the manipulation!
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