Malaysian Newspapers...

They are bearers of news and info...

Was just looking some of the headlines.... Bodies Piling Up in Haiti; then the huge earthquake in Chile. Pictures and news in the media arouse emotions in us.

Then on another day, DPM: Nation Needs Talents to Drive Economy, I read with great skepticism. Sounded like another one of those right thing to say but not practiced kinda thing.... for a certain target audience only; investors, to placate a certain segment of the population.... Fact is our best still continue to flock out. Many reasons... but mainly it's cakap tak serupa bikin. Felt like I was reading another big crap. But these days, even the Malays with no connections get disillusioned. The pie is getting smaller.......

Foreign news on our papers are generally okay unless it touches on certain issues which we're pro to, e.g. if we report about Palestinian and the Jewish conflict, the Israelites will always be labelled pengganas. But suicide bombers (who also blow up lots of innocent bystanders) are labelled as pejuang berani mati.

Local news on the other hand makes me sick to the stomach sometimes; cos the reporting is never balanced. Newspapers often sound like propaganda machine. We don't seem to be making effort to provide reports and let the reader/audience make their own conclusions from the facts laid down.

I liken it to what's happening around me.... the ustaz(s) and ustazah(s) when they teach sometimes can be overhead teaching the students that when they go to a non-Muslim's house, they should not partake of any food as it is haram. So much for unity... before it has a chance, these kids have already been planted with suspicion... so much for 1Malaysia. But in front of us, they're really nice. Nice is only a mask.....

[060:008 Noble Quran Sher Ali] ALLAH forbids you not respecting those who have not fought against you on account of your religion, and who have not driven you out from your homes, that you be kind to them and deal equitably with them; surely, ALLAH loves those who are equitable

If I understand this well enough, the Quran says Muslims are allowed to eat the food prepared by any human being as long as it is clean, healthy and prepared with halal ingredients. Islam supposedly teaches people to be friendly to all people. But it's suspicion that is planted. These days I don't even want to offer any food to most of my Muslim colleagues... I get the feeling that they don't trust that I will make sure things are halal before offering to them...

Sometimes, my colleagues do not realize that I can listen into their lessons. And I find it repulsive to learn that they teach the students to be so narrow minded. Anyway, I am no Islamic scholar... I listen and then I go find out.

And of Christians or Jews having to convert when they marry a Muslim... don't Christians fall into the category of the People of the Book in the Quran. The Quran states clearly there is no need to convert. No papers ever write about such issues.... such issues can unite; which is a bad thing if the powers that are want us divided. Remember the British method, Divide & Rule? I think it's still being practiced; under a different guise and with lots of fear put in.

The media is supposed to educate and not poison... yet ours seem to gravitate towards the latter. I was just thinking... information is power. It was so easy to manipulate information before the age of internet. It still is but info seems to come in from every direction now, everyone can be a citizen journalist. Just look at our cowhead and church (Sikh temple and mosque) attacks. It's probably because info was disseminated at such dizzying speeds that it was actually hard to incite negative feelings and that most of us can make our own conclusions. What with RPK predicting some of events before they happened. Either he is a soothsayer or there is script to follow. But our main media... the standards are lopsided.

During the May 13th incident, the whole country was plunged into deep fear because it was impossible to know what happened exactly. And every story tended to take on a life of its own. And so, fear also became compounded. It was easy to manipulate in those days... still can manipulate but it's more possible to undo it in a short time.

News... info... they used to say that wealth is power. These days you need more than just wealth. You need to be able to control that flow of info... so our newspapers, right now I think they're not worth a read unless it's to improve your language. LOL!