First of all, I would consider myself as one of those avid 'alternative news' reader, and Malaysian Insider is being one of them. Having a journalism background I do have a little bit of idea that NO media is 100% UNBIASED, although for a political conscious Malaysian Insider, like most seemingly "alternative online news" that purportedly called themselves as unbiased, widely practices spin, omission, deviation to any political news content to suit their agenda, the same way all the BN owned media. I mean that is just how things work. HOWEVER I just could not help myself to comment about this particular report that is being 'reproduce' and circulated in the Yahoo! Malaysia as it confirms the 'rumors' that Yahoo! just as the rest of the so called liberal, democratic, Internet - is NOT so liberal anyways. there is indeed ulterior motive in the cyberspace particularly in reference to Malaysian political online activism.
Hence, as someone who is doing research about new media, I could not help but to 'investigate' this particular report as I find it in my view,is an effort to strained the relationship of father-daughter of Marina and Tun M, trumping up their political differences and subsequently giving the impression that Tun M is a bad father because he is against his daughter's 'liberal, just, democratic' ideals.
Look at the followings:
The former prime minister said this in an interview with online television station The Malaysian Observer (MobTV).
“She doesn’t care about what people think. I care about what people think... if not, I won’t get anywhere.
“Maybe it’s because she has no ambition so she speaks her mind. I cannot agree with the things she is doing, but nowadays you cannot tell your children ‘please stop this, please stop that’; they have a mind of their own,” said the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
Now, the 'spin doctor' clearly 'caught red-handed' in Malaysian Insider. check out the
part that said, Tun M said about Marina; "she has NO [emphasis added] ambition..she speaks
her mind.."
when in real recording, Tun said, "maybe because she
doesn't have an ambition..A POLITICAL AMBITION" - clearly they omitted
that part "a political ambition" in which i think would make his
statement valid (make sense) as to the issue of why Marina seems to appear
'against' what her father's stand for; "undeniable that she does a lot of
thing that's politically incorrect" (the exact words of the interviewer
verbatim).
and same goes to the other part highlighted in this Malaysian insider's report; when it said, tun said "she doesn't care what
people think, i care about what people think" when in actual fact he was
saying "you (interviewer) are saying she doesn't care of what people think
as being me i care of what people think.." this issue whether she care or
careless are the interviewer's inferring Marina's seemingly 'liberal
principles' eg: LGBT issues etc.
Thus, one cannot help but to wonder the obvious; what does Malaysian Insider had to gain from this report? Be careful of your actions, Tun Mahathir warns daughter
I for one, finds this sad, as I thought (although I knew it is difficult to believe, but you know one of those 'wishful thinking') Malaysian Insider could be different from the rest especially MalaysiaKini that is so screamingly slanted towards the opposition. NOTHING about the good of the government is being reported there (the same reason why i 'moved' to another plateau of the alternatives). Of course, those of the learned will know about this straight up just as there should be aware off of the skewed reporting in Mainstream, BN-owned Media. Again, all MEDIA essentially have their own specific agenda. Regardless, to go for a report like this, straining (although mere perceptions maybe) relationships of the Tun and the other M sitting on the opposite side of the fence (or some say on the fence vis-a-vis neutral) is derogating the online news' conviction of being 'impartial' of political situations.
I guess that is exactly why they don't highlight this following piece from the interview;-
Q: tun in a country to be able to develop potentially, politicians must be able to take criticism against them I remember during your 22 years; you were called the worst possible names, books of horrendous nature written about you, have you sued anybody during your time?
A: never, I did say sometime as politician we must respect this and the only way you can counter this is to explain that what they say about you is not true, some people will believe some people will not believe, but to shut up people in their criticisms by suing them in court is as same as censoring the press for example is worse than censoring the press.
this was made in reference to this question:-
Q: and I understand that you recently made a statement that
wondering as to why datuk seri anwar Ibrahim who suing almost everybody but not suing datuk
murad did you ask that question?
A; yes yes because anwar’s idea of how to prevent attacks
against him is to sue you in court, he
sued me for one hundred million dollars, simply because I repeated the appeals
of what the judges has said in the case of, in the findings regarding the
sodomy charge, for that, for repeating the words of the judge I was sued by him
such was the way the his lawyers conducted the case, that it lasted almost five
years. Now we very respectful of the
court, now with the thing with the court we don’t talk, it is called subjudice,
so for five years I wasn’t able to say anything, in my own defense and in the
end of course they found that there was no case, and he has been suing
everybody, he talks a lot of freedom of speech, and that he will be very open
and all but the moment somebody says something about him, he sue them in court
and he is profitable, it is profitable because he sue me for one hundred
million if he wins he might get one hundred million but when he lost he was
fined 70 thousand dollars, so it is profitable for people like him to sue in
court, to abuse, the system the judiciary system of this country.
ANWAYS you could listen and spend your precious democratic
liberal time of 35minutes for the whole interview here RAPERA- Bersama Mantan PM, Tun Mahathir
or alternatively, you could peruse the transcript that i made (as part of my research work not for the sake of this argument) below:-
Host/ Interviewer: Jahaberdeen Mohamad yunoos.
Q: Tun, you had been out of office for more than 10 years
(tun M interrupted: not, quite 8 years) , oh almost 8 years, you had a very
busy 22 years as a prime minister, now one would look towards a retirement, it
appears in your dictionary there is no retirement from serving the people and
the country, now why is it that you are still very active.
A: you know I, I’ve
been trained as a doctor, and I believe when you retire you don’t do anything
you die very quick, so you must keep
active all the time. Show an interest in
things and that will keep you going,
so besides that of course I am
interested in what’s happening in the country, and if there is anything I can
do to be of help, for me this is payback period, people happy to be with the
prime minister before now is my turn to
help them with their politics.
Q: sir, you’ve been the prime minister for 22 years, and I
understand through those years when you were the PM you have discourage many of
your children to enter politics, in fact I don’t remember any of your children being active in politics during
your premiership that is rather unfair for your children to serve
the country also, why…what do you think? Do you think it would be unfair in
that sense?
A: I was very selfish
, I was thinking about myself, I don’t want people to accuse me of nepotism, of
trying to set up a dynasty, so I actually told my children not to be involve
politics not to business with government after I retire they can do it, so um
now that I’ve retired I have not stopped them,
and if they want to be in politics, they are welcomed.
Q: But don’t you
think it is rather ironical tun, you have set those kinds of ideals because you
don’t want to be accused of nepotism and so on as you say, is ironical in the
sense if you look at the opposition party for example you look at the PKR, the
wife the daughter similarly DAP as well so in your case, while you want to
maintain the idealism, don’t you think for example if you look at datuk
Mukhriz, he may have lost out the grassroots for instance. Your idealism appears not to be shared with
the opposition parties.
A: well I am not
insisting that they should it is up to the people to evaluate them as to
whether they like people who practice nepotism but as far as Mukhriz is
concern, I knew that he was interested but not allowing him into politics while
I was the PM he couldn’t start as early as I did, because I started in politics
at the age at 21. So he did not have that headstart, so he’s struggling now ,
he is finding things very difficult, because he has to establish himself.
Q: In fact he made a recent statement in the press, there were talk there are people who wants
him to be the Menteri Besar of kedah, he
actually said that he is not looking for positions let things evolve by themselves, as a father, now that you’re out of the
official politics, would you not help him?
A: I would help him, but what he does, what position he
holds, is up to the party, if they nominate him as the Menteri besar, I would
support him, but normally you don’t nominate a person for Menteri besar because
you don’t know whether he is going to win or not. You just nominate him for either a state seat
or a federal seat. So that would be indicative of his future.
Q: tun, you have a
lot of children, If I may say use the word a colourful set of children for
example you have one son who is into motor racing, F1 formula, and you have one daughter datin paduka marina
who is in the sense appears to be very principle like you who doesn’t really
care of what other people think and undeniable that she does a lot of thing
that’s politically incorrect. But that shows her principle and what she
believes in her conscience now some of her positions, statements she has made,
it appears to be against what you stand for. Surely being that kind of person,
you can’t complain can you.
A: you are saying she doesn’t care of what people think as
being like me I care of what people think because if I don’t care I don’t get
anywhere, maybe
because she doesn’t have an ambition, political ambition, she speaks her mind, I cannot agree with what she is doing, but in this day you
cannot stop your children from doing what they think, because they have a mind
of their own, but I do hope that she will realise that what she is doing is not
good for herself, not good for the government party at least, she is not a
member I think, I think she should also be sensitive about her brother who is
contesting in the elections.
Q: tun there is another view to that, if I may, datin paduka
marina is a very remarkable person, even in my own eyes, because she seems to
speak up for the underprivileged, I mean many children of politician and you,
the former prime minister, would not speak up the way she does, don’t you think
that’s a remarkable trait in a person and the Malaysian society should actually
be more mature to realise that in your family, there are different groups of
people with different ideal. As a father what do u think.
A; well she speaks
for the under, underdog it’s fine, I don’t like this idea associating herself
from Bersih, been hijacked, by the
politician I don’t agree she has never said this, but Bersih and this other
movement that believe in men marry man, woman marry woman, she never said that she supports that but I
hope she doesn’t .
Q; um tun I think on
that point I think you were referring to LBGT, if I understand datin paduka
marina very clearly, she has never supported men marry men, woman marry
woman, I think what’s she’s fighting for
is against the oppression of those who are already of that nature by certain
quarters. This is something that is misunderstood, maybe tun you…
A; a yes I
understand, I never stopped her because she cares for these people who are
indeterminate in terms of her sex, that I can understand, but she has to draw a
line between that and this idea that homo sexual is ok, man marry man is ok,
and all that, that I disagree entirely.
Q: tun still a, a little bit on datin paduka marina, don’t
you think that the way she carries herself they way she associated herself with
NGOs, the way she associated herself with the underprivileged not not just tht
LGBT, but for example, she helps AIDS for instance, she does a lot of work for
the youths, don’t you think she
represents the new generations, the new youth who want to be very involve, in
social activities. Those days you have all these things done by the politicians
now we have if you like datin paduka marina, a non-governmental individual
moving these things. Don’t you think she represent the new day, the new era of
today?
A: not so new, in the
past we have voluntary organisations not they are called NGOs, that’s the only
different, now they call NGOs doing quite the same work, in terms of charity etcetera. Now she gets
mixed up with Bersih, Bersih is accusing this government of fiddling around
with elections, now if this government were to fiddle around with
elections, now the opposition would
never win any seats. But in this country the opposition has always won, even captured
home states, there maybe some hanky-panky but it is not of the kind that you
see in some authoritarian countries so the degree is not the same and the
manner to by-pass elections, and overthrow government that is not something
that is, needed in Malaysia. Because if you want to overthrow government,
through the elections process you can throw the government.
Q: you’re saying theres a big difference between democracy
and mock-cracy…(tun cuts off)
A: mock cracy, street demos, but actually the democracy is
about the majority, what we are saying now the overbearing influence of the
minority, as if the minority rejects the rights of the majority, to to..oh
well, willpower.
Q: tun, on that subject,
there is feeling there is perception that, in the past four years,
suddenly, new political era in Malaysia, there is greater liberalisation, there
is more democratic space, you have the people feeling, that there is better expression, do you think that is so or do you think it is
kind of fallacy going on?
A: well it appear to be a little bit more liberal on the
part of the government, but actually they don’t study these things very
well, I was wondering supposing you say
anybody can set up any political party, you
will not be jail for setting up political party and all that or hindered in any
way, but then somebody comes along and branch the alqaeda here, that’s
political do we allow that? Or somebody wants to have a communist party in this
country, do you allow that? So you see that you will have to see these things
right through, if you do this, what will happen in the future? Even the ISA, um
supposed to be reversed, we find that
the advance countries of the world, (interviewer interrupts, yes the America)
are now detaining people without even the benefit of the law, for example in
Guantanamo, there is people who has been detained there for more than 10
years. Aa why are they doing it? There
are doing it because they think it is in their interest, security of their
country, we have the ISA to ensure there is no, racial clashes in this country,
because that is bad for the country.
Q: Tun on this issue of liberalisation again, you are saying
that while we can enjoy this liberalisation you say we could not be so euphoric
about it, without thinking about the country interests, why you’re concern, you
concern that this liberalisation might be taken by any irresponsible quarters
for instance, do you concern, apprehension?
A: no, any policy
that you have must be for the benefit of the country and in democracy of course
‘of the country’ means, benefit of the
majority we cannot satisfy anybody, but when the minority tries to hijack the
power of the majority, by resorting to
disruptive ways like streets demonstration, you are actually denying democracy,
taking away the power of the majority, the rights of the majority, simply
because you are more vocal you laud, yes lauder you see when you have liberal
attitudes the people who will seize the opportunities will not be the majority,
it will be the extremist, in any community the extremist will be first one, to make use of this, and in fact to abuse
this, and the moderates usually dare not
go against the extremist, because they
will become subjected to a lot of abuse, so the moderates will just keep quiet,
and today a lot of people come and see me and asked me whether I think this
country becoming very race conscious, more race conscious than before, in fact
they think we are all racists now,.
Q: what is the, on the point of this racism, when prime
minister Najib announce 1malaysia, I personally thought that was a radical
announcement coming an umno president,
bearing in mind you did talk about bangsa Malaysia a long long time ago,
but I can understand the sentiment of umno, now this 1malaysia, I myself got
very excited, it gives the idea that we no longer talk about ketuanan melayu,
we no longer talk about the Chinese, kadazan dusun and so forth, a tun, do you
think this 1malaysia has fired up the imagination of the people in this
country?
A: no the movements’ people are still talking more about
themselves, about their race, about their rights, about their privileges, you
must remember, the privileges are not only for the Malays and the bumiputras,
the non-malays are also privilege because only in this country do people still
indentifies themselves with their origins, are allowed to have their language,
culture, their school system, and to stay apart, we are not one at all, we
find, people are still segregated under the british of course you see the
Indians stay in the estates, the Malays in the rural, the Chinese in the
cities,
Q: and shouldn’t we do something about it tun to to bring
them together?
A: yeah we tried to do something about it but there were
objections, for example we thought that since we’re gonna have Indians, Chinese
schools, national Indian and Chinese schools, why not put them on a campus? So that at
least, they will come in contact with one another in that age, so that they
know that this is a multiracial country, but the Chinese educationists
vehemently objected to have their children go near Malay children even, that is
the effect of what their opposition if that is not racist I don’t know what is.
Q: isn’t it ironic and peculiar that while our government
has got this 1malaysia concept at the same time, even DAP is talking about this Malaysian
Malaysia, everybody is seem to be talking about 1malaysia, and as you got your
point pointed out, only recent we got the issues of vernacular schools, came
out again. Tun, how do u reconcile this position, on one hand, everybody is
seems to be talking about 1malaysia, on the other hand you have the other group
“no we still want our Chinese schools we still want our Indians schools” as
oppose you remember correctly many many years ago, you spoke about sekolah
wawasan, when you wanted to put all those schools together, you can have it but
they can mix during the break and so own and so forth..do you see us moving
forward or are we still going back to you know, my language, my culture.
A: I think talk is
cheap, I mean they say Malaysian Malaysia, why do they say Malaysian Malaysia,
because they stand to gain in competition of any kind, we always give
handicaps, If you play golf you know, if you are not strong player they give
you less score or something like that but if you feel that the removal of handicaps
like that, would give you an advantage of course we want to say “let’s have no
handicaps” let’s all be Malaysians, this idea came from the PAP, when PAP
campaigned in this country in 1964, they touted Malaysian Malaysia, they say in
this country the Chinese are disadvantage, and all that, but they want
Malaysian Malaysia by removing the certain handicaps that you give to the less
capable race, they would take everything for themselves.
Q: but is it not possible to help the less capable, the
underprivileged without moving along the racial lines?
A: you can do that,
but only one race will benefit from that,
Q: and at the end of the day you seem to be able to identify
the underprivileged to be a race anyway..
A: a yeah..
(commercial break)
Q: tun in the papers recently
there is this brouhaha about datuk murad, the former deputy governor who
apparently made that declaration way back in 1999 allegedly regarding some 3
billion fund, in 20 accounts, allegedly again belonging to this on behalf of
datuk seri anwar Ibrahim, this was made as in your time tun. Do you do anything
about it that time.
A: I think at that time datuk murad does not want to confirm
he doesn’t want to be as open as he is today that time I don’t know but he
wasn’t willing to sort of expose himself
Q: and therefore..
A: to don’t do anything
Q: and I understand that you recently made a statement that
wondering as to why datuk seri anwar Ibrahim who suing almost everybody but not suing datuk
murad did you ask that question?
A; yes yes because anwar’s idea of how to prevent attacks
against him is to sue you in court, he
sued me for one hundred million dollars, simply because I repeated the appeals
of what the judges has said in the case of, in the findings regarding the
sodomy charge, for that, for repeating the words of the judge I was sued by him
such was the way the his lawyers conducted the case, that it lasted almost five
years. Now we very respectful of the
court, now with the thing with the court we don’t talk, it is called subjudice,
so for five years I wasn’t able to say anything, in my own defense and in the
end of course they found that there was no case, and he has been suing
everybody, he talks a lot of freedom of speech, and that he will be very open
and all but the moment somebody says something about him, he sue them in court
and he is profitable, it is profitable because he sue me for one hundred
million if he wins he might get one hundred million but when he lost he was
fined 70 thousand dollars, so it is profitable for people like him to sue in
court, to abuse, the system the judiciary system of this country.
Q: tun in a country to be able to develop potentially,
politicians must be able to take criticism against them I remember during your
22 years; you were called the worst possible names, books of horrendous nature
written about you, have you sued anybody during your time?
A: never, I did say sometime as politician we must respect
this and the only way you can counter this is to explain that what they say
about you is not true, some people will believe some people will not
believe, but to shut up people in their
criticisms by suing them in court is as same as censoring the press for example
is worse than censoring the press.
Q; in fact in the us, sorry in the uk there is house of
lords decision, recent one, where whenever politicians sued for defamation the
house of lords held the politicians cannot sue for defamation, because as you
said they should expect it as part of the job. Now from there, there is a new
culture of debate going on, I don’t think that this culture existed before, now
you have political leaders debating with each other, what do you think of this
new debate culture?
A: well we have the new media, I suppose the people are more
conscious about the information, and maybe the debate here can be, do some
good, but I suspect the people has already formed, has fixed their minds for
many things, no matter what you say, for example if I say something in my own
defense those who are against me will continue to say, the other day I was
interviewed by a phd student, she said I had more than one wife, that I married
somebody from Terengganu, I said it is not true, she said it is not true? She
appeared to have believed it, as though, I mean my behaviour I am not going
around looking for women, I go with my
wife anywhere I go, and yet people believe I have another wife in Singapore,
another wife in Terengganu, I hardly go to Terengganu
Q: so tun your situation you have a wife but you don’t know
where is your wife.
A; people evidently
Q: jump in their own conclusions..
A: yeah, for example
nik aziz, no matter how you expose that he is wrong from the point of view of religion, his followers will still think of him as the
great ulama. It is like a there’s arqam, or ayah pin you see once they believe
in this people there is no dis-convincing them.
Q: tun on this debate issue assuming a debate is organise
you and datuk seri anwar Ibrahim, would you accept it?
A: I don’t think there is any benefit in that.
Q: there is no
benefit in that?
A: I no..
Q: there is no use of that?
A: no there is no use, because his followers will never
change
Q: his followers will never change? But will you accept the
invitation to debate him?
A: no I would not I can’t be debating with Anwar.
Q: can I ask you
reasons why?
A: if he has anything
to say he can say it, if I have anything to reply I will reply. I wouldn’t go
up on a stage and debate.
Q: tun is there anything you want to tell to the rakyat
because we are on the internet, a lot of people watch this tv, and you have now
the new media, the social media, etc so called liberalisation we spoke out.
A: you know as a muslim, I got this thing to say, that the
bad things that has happened to you is due to you, the good thing up from
Allah. So if there’s anything bad happens to Malaysia, we are to be blame, because
we allowed ourselves to be influence by all kinds of lies, and sometimes you
developed a hatred you can’t even say the truth. I worry because now they play
up on emotions that the government is bad, therefore you should overthrow it,
but let’s compare governments between this governments to other third world governments
most of them are autocratic, and they have not succeeded in developing their country,
we have in this country we have done a lot for the people people who had never
dream of getting an education they get the phds because of the help from the
government, people who had never dreamt to do business now get to do business,
so a lot of things have be done to the people and if they were to be honest to themselves
including those who got their scholarships, they would not compare and say this
government is oppressive, as the governments of the Arab countries,
experiencing the Arab spring. So if this country goes to the dogs, we only have
ourselves to blame.
Q: having said all these things how do you see the Barisan nasional
performances for pru 13.
A: I think the chances are there, bn would still win, but I am
not too sure about getting the two thirds majority, but we need strong
government in this country, because when the government is weak people take pot-shot
you see, they make demands which they know government cannot exceed to, but
they make demands, just to embarrass to create an issue, and generally to give
an impression of instability, and if the country is instable you cannot grow
the country, people will not invest.
Q: thank you for making time on mobtv.
A; you’re welcome.
**sigh**
