
News portal’s refusal to pull down inflammatory Cow Head video is a clear indication that they are firmly aligned with the Opposition and does not deserve respect as a neutral new outlet.
Anything aligned to Anwar Ibrahim has a tendency to say one thing and do the exact opposite.
Popular newsportal Malaysiakini claims to be independent and neutral but of course, it is patently now.
Apart from the blatant dishonesty in branding and positioning, this Pakatan Rakyat-aligned news outlet, like other news outlets linked to the Opposition, seem to operate with unbearable superiority complex, pushing rules, regulations and laws to breaking point on a regular basis as if it is their God-given right.
As if pushing the boundary of the law is not enough, Malaysiakini is now behaving like it just returned from a one-week Anwarista boot camp, where they were taught that once you have pushed the law to the limit, they must now push the regulators to the wall.
In their latest act of defiance Malaysiakini is now doing its best to tarnish the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for instructing the news portal to remove a series of videos which have been ruled as inflammatory and detrimental to harmony and race relations in the country.
Using typical Anwar-taught tactics, they now accuse the Commission of bully-tactics when in reality it is Malaysiakini, with their considerable command of public opinion, that is pummeling the MCMC into submission.
Like Anwar himself Malaysiakini is a giant that wants people to believe that they are weak, downtrodden and is under constant threat of being a victim.
By projecting this weakling image, they hope public sympathy would swing behind them and we all know just how deft Anwar is at using public sympathy for support.
Malaysiakini also likes to sell itself as a neutral news portal, but of course this is slightly more difficult to swallow than hogwash as anyone that has visited the site within the last hour would know that they content is Opposition heavy and any article about the Government are either short and shallow or heavily editorialized to present the negative aspect of any issue.
Malaysiakini was started with the help of foreign funding, it was born at the same time as Anwar Ibrahim’s reformasi movement when Malaysia was under intense attack from foreign media for its unconventional, but very effective, capital control measures that ultimately blocked any invasion efforts or attempts to create fire-sale of any of the country’s economic engines.
Malaysiakini went hand in hand with Anwar’s Keadilan movement and bashed the Government and the newsportal enjoyed the support of Anwar’s cybertroopers, including its general Raja Petra Kamaruddin.
Their excuse then for taking a pro-opposition stance was the lack of engagement by the Government and the lack of access to official news sources.
Well all that has changed, they now have the same rights as any conventional media but they continue to take a hardcore pro-opposition approach.
This has created much concern within the Government because Malaysiakini, for all intents and purposes behaves like a party political mouthpiece rather than an independent Media house.
Party mouthpieces like Harakah, Roket and Suara Keadilan are not accorded the same rights as news organizations because they are not news organizations, they are party propaganda machinery and therefore sometimes denied entry to official and semi-official Government news conferences and events.
All publications and news organizations are bound by the same set of laws that are enforced by the MCMC and after years of laxed attitude, the MCMC is now keen to ensure that both the letter and the spirit of the legislation is followed.
At a time of fractured national unity, obviously the MCMC does not want to be known as the agency that allowed the Opposition to shatter 52 years of harmony.
The Cow Head protest incident is taken very seriously by the Government and so far they have charged 12 people with sedition and 22 more with illegal assembly for inciting disharmony.
Therefore it is only fair that the Government should expect everyone from the mainstream media to alternative outlets to support their effort in strengthening unity.
The continued availability of the videos on Malaysiakini means people can and would be reminded of the awful incident and that is clearly not healthy for national unity.
Yet Malaysiakini turns its nose to this simple and very reasonable request.
Like all Opposition-linked or sponsored news outlets, they expect to operate on a different set of rules from the mainstream media, yet another trait of the Anwarist movement.
Given Malaysiakini’s tendency to abuse its popularity and resort to bully tactics, the MCMC must take stern action now and put the full weight of the law to bear on the news portal.