SCUMS OF THE EARTH – SAVIORS OF MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM. – PART II.

…MOVE AWAY ALL YOU PIOUS AND CIVIC-MINDED PEOPLE; IT’S THE WORLD OF THE NASTY AND MEAN.

By Mansor Puteh

Does the journalism fraternity dare to conduct an in-depth study of the state of journalism in Malaysia today to see what it’s flaws are and where corrections to it could be made? Or, are they happy with its status quo?

Who will be the ‘father of the new Malaysian journalism’, the person who can push it to greater heights so journalistic ethics are looked up and the fraternity are considered to be some of the finest persons in the country?

We cannot hang on to Rahim Kajai or Samad Ismail forever as the source of guidance; we need to create a new father for the new journalism in the country. Who will that particular person be?

Ironically, the person will never be someone who is in journalism, because they are too emotional to allow him and his fraternity to be the subject of study and debate.

What is Malaysian journalism today without such types including those who are loud, erratic, mentally unstable and rabble rousers and other types who are capable of saying some of the darnest and ridiculous things?

The personal miseries of the others are entertainment of the masses. This is what Malaysian journalism wants everybody to believe.

They do not want to educate the public to appreciate beauty, originality and the good sense. They only want the Malaysian public to be confused with themselves and their identity.

So they go out of the way to make sure Malaysians become pseudo-Americans and people who live in fantasy of being so. This is despite the fact that most of them are never going to be able to afford most of the things that the newspapers are promoting everyday – those watches which cost a few scores of thousands of ringgit and the expensive tour packages that they promote.

Their fashion columnists do not earn enough to buy anything that they promote.

Don’t they know that those who can afford anything expensive do not flaunt them? It’s only those who can’t afford them want to talk about them like they already have them in their minds.

So the newspapers end up getting many Malaysians to own fake items that are bought in the ‘pasar malam’ all over the country.

Don’t blame these people; they are shaped to think fake by the newspapers who peddle fake news all the time.

They express fake sentiments and share fake emotions.

Worse, they are secret operatives of foreign countries – America, the Zionists, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, India and the west.

The electronic media are not to be left behind in this effort. They take the trouble of even broadcasting Hollywood film trailers on prime-time news.

The problem with most of the editors in Malaysia is that they are not formally trained. There are so few of them who are. And most of them had not lived or studied in America; so they have a lot of guilt.

So no wonder, they express this by over-promoting America in their newspapers everyday, just to tell everybody and their readers how ‘American’ or ‘Western’ they, like it is a sin if they do not do this.

They do not feel guilty for working at the behest of the others mentioned above. They think they are doing themselves a service for promoting the interests of those countries. This is despite them not having been given any recognition from the leaders of those countries.

Imagine if there is a newspaper in America that has a small column on Malaysia, their editors would have been given official recognition by the Malaysian government.

And the owners of the television stations in America who broadcast even one small program on Malaysia on their station would also be feted as heroes.

But so far, only bad news of Malaysia are broadcast and covered by such papers and television stations.

So move away all you educated people; those who are the average and pious and less controversial. You are bad for Malaysian journalism which needs only scum of the earth.

There is no industry which seems to thrive on the negative, bad and useless than journalism.

And what are the papers in Malaysia without such people?

So these are the types of people the Malaysian journalism wants to help them promote and sell their papers.

Can we also say that it is Malaysian journalism which has managed to create most of them to be what they are today, the scum of the earth and such types in Malaysia?

There were not many people of such stripes in Malaysia before, but now there are so many of them.

So the more there are people like them, the better it is for Malaysian journalism so they can make Malaysian journalism more colorful with glaring headlines everyday. It makes the job of the editors very easy.

Move away all you civic-minded people.

Blood donors and charitable persons are useless to Malaysian journalism; crooks are favored.

And those whom the newspapers definitely do not want are: the ordinary folks, the civic-minded, law-abiding citizens like you and I, the regular and also top blood donors in the country, the pious and the soft-spoken, etc.

Do the newspapers know how to sell their papers? Do they know what news is anymore?

How qualified are the newspaper editors, sub-editors and journalists?

What are the Malaysian Press Institute and National Union of Journalists anyway?

How much has Malaysian journalism regressed over the last decade or so?

And how many of the scholars have done research work to compare Malaysian journalism today and that which was practiced before, when Malaya was under British colonial rule?

The changes are stark and we can see that when comparing their editorial policies, their emphasis and columns.

Malaya then which was under British colonial rule had journalism which was very local; today when we are supposed to be more than half a century as an independent state, our journalism seems to be too enamored with the west, and also of England.

How ironic! How pathetic!

Malaysian journalism today still depends on the west for its subsistence for which there can never be Malaysian journalism.

So now we have stories which are the types that are emphasized in newspapers and the media in the west, which deals on things which are very negative.

Those which are positive are not news because they are very difficult to sell.