Dr M and Murdoch: Twins separated at birth?

Malaysia Post - by Mariam Mokhtar : Dr Mahathir Mohamad. You either love him or hate him. In his latest blog, he taunted the western media for their self-righteousness and gloated over the telephone hacking scandal caused by the News of the World, one of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, which rocked the UK.

In his latest posting on Aug 2 entitled ‘The telephone hacking scandal II’, Mahathir described how western journalists freely condemned our failure to respect the rule of law, our injustices, our poor human rights record and our corruption.

He then said that the western media was equally contemptible and that they (the western press) would just as easily cheat, abuse the trust placed on them and would ignore human rights. They were guilty of the dirty things they allege we had committed.

Mahathir then relished relating how UK members of parliament were found to have used taxpayers’ money to fund their private lifestyles and that their governments would also “sell titles”.

As expected, Mahathir used the recent telephone hacking scandal to illustrate his contempt for the western media and all that they represented.

Mahathir seemed to enjoy detailing the bribes given to journalists so that they would downplay the indiscretions committed by powerful people.

Interestingly, Mahathir said that “their politicians are just as afraid of the press as we are.”

Unsurprisingly, Mahathir slammed the western press for misreporting about Malaysia, in essence, telling lies about the country. He further condemned the continual denigration of the Malaysian government, without the west checking the veracity of the facts.

He poured scorn on western reports about his cronyism, his manipulation of the judiciary and his treatment of Anwar Ibrahim, his one-time deputy.

Mahathir ended by saying that except for a few notables, the western journalists are “not the impartial purveyors of truth that people assume them to be.”

The press baron

Before Mahathir can ridicule the western press even further, perhaps he should look at the man at the centre of the telephone hacking scandal – the press baron, Rupert Murdoch.

In a special report commissioned by Reuters, it was reported that Murdoch micro-managed his media empire and would “dispose of any editor who regularly takes a different stance from his own”.

Murdoch would put pressure on his editors “until their newspapers reflected his own political leanings”.

How different is this from Mahathir’s rule? We hear allegations that no one would dare oppose Mahathir and that he had a little red book which detailed people’s faults, which could be used against them, if they dared challenge him in the future.

Mahathir might also like to compare the different relationships between the press and the politicians, in Malaysia and the west.

Murdoch cosied up to several MPs in UK, and with his indirect influence and patronage, would control the politicians. Contrast this with the Malaysian press and politicians. Over here, politicians, principally leaders of Umno, control the press.

In the west, it was the ‘dirty’ politicians who were desperate to win elections and who got into bed with Murdoch.

It was a sort of quid pro quo whereby they would get immediate, extended and positive coverage in the papers, and support in an election year, provided they gave Murdoch unhindered access to Downing Street. If they did not, they would be annihilated in the press.

Over in Malaysia, there is no question that Umno’s leaders hold sway over what our mainstream media publishes.

So what is there to be proud of Mahathir? In the west, Murdoch controlled the politicians. Over here, Mahathir (when he was PM) and his successors dictate what should and should not be published in our media.

Links with FBC Media

How does Mahathir explain the scandalous exposes on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and the Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, who manipulated the foreign press into giving glossy impressions about their personalities and governance?

FBC Media Ltd, a UK-based PR company, has now been taken off air by both CNN and the BBC.

Perhaps, Mahathir has conveniently ignored the recent revelations by the Sarawak Report (SR) website?

SR reported that Najib and Taib spent scores of millions of taxpayer’s money on self-publicity based on lies – the same lies that Mahathir accused the western press of not attempting to ‘verify the truth first’? The FBC has tarnished CNN and the BBC with their biased reporting.

Mahathir mentioned that in the west, the Metropolitan Police Chief was not immune to being questioned by the Parliamentary Select Committee over his handling of the hacking and over his acceptance of a stay at a health spa paid for by a former News of the World editor. The police chief has since resigned to prevent his force from further bad publicity.

Contrast this with Malaysia. Last December, our Parliamentary Select Committee denied Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim the opportunity to present his case on the APCO allegations and its links with Najib.

Malaysia’s parliamentary committee decided to rely solely on a letter from public relation consultancy APCO and barred witnesses from being called. In the end, Anwar was suspended from parliament.

Perhaps the critical difference Mahathir should consider is that in the west, those who are guilty of crimes are brought to trial, and given a fair hearing before justice is meted out.

Over in Malaysia, it makes no difference if the judiciary, the police, the politicians and all those who are guilty of any crimes have been caught red-handed.

They will be let off or be subjected to a sham trial. At worst, especially if public opinion is bound to go against the government, there will be a cursory sentence.

Malaysians, especially politicians and civil servants, do not know the meaning of accountability.

Iron grip

Finally, those who are critical of Murdoch claim that his personality, managerial style and the pressure he exerted on journalists, created a culture that encouraged the type of behaviour which accepts phone hacking to get sensational news stories. The end justifies the means.

Isn’t this what we have seen with Mahathir? During his rule, many of our institutions were corrupted by his style of governance and leadership.

Corruption, nepotism, lack of accountability, abuse of power, money politics and race and religion being used to divide us, are some of the things we have inherited from Mahathir.

Bruce Guthrie, a former editor at Murdoch’s Herald Sun in Melbourne, described Murdoch to Reuters: “He is not necessarily a bloke who wants to discuss ethics in journalism.”

Perhaps we can say of Mahathir, “He is not necessarily a bloke who wants to discuss ethics in politics.”