Hazlan Zakaria & Wong Teck Chi | Jul 19, 11
Malaysiakini
Opposition parliamentarians have claimed that the July 16 edition of The Economist has been defaced by the Home Ministry in an apparent attempt to censor a report on the Bersih 2.0 rally for electoral reform.
“The Economist July16 issue has been censored/black inked on Bersih story by Home Ministry,” reads a tweet by Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran.
In photos distributed via micro-blog site Twitter, the report headlines ‘Political affray in Malaysia: Taken to the cleaners’ shows lines blacked out by what seems to be a permanent marker pen.
Malaysiakini could not immediately verify the claim, but a comparison with the online version reveals that the lines struck out refer to allegations of police and government misconduct:
– ‘and one man died of a heart attack’, in the first paragraph.
– ‘The march itself was then banned, although the authorities offered Bersih a stadium to meet in – and then withdrew the offer’, in the second paragraph
– ‘The heavy-handed police tactics have provoked a lot of anger; the government has conceded an official investigation into claims of police brutality. In one instance (caught on film), police seemed to fire tear gas and water cannon into a hospital where protesters were sheltering from a baton charge’, in the fourth paragraph.
When contacted, Kulasegaran criticised the action as “uncalled for”.
“In this day and age only a police run state would do this. They are trying to hide writing which could be true, because (they are afraid) it will be read by the public and they will believe it. The government is still (suffering from) denial syndrome.”
The DAP leader however, dismissed the attempt as ineffectual as the full article is “available online anyway”.
PKR vice-president Tian Chua also tweeted on the matter and posted photos of the censored pages: “I’m sure @TheEconomist readers are intelligent enough to know how to get the full article, but the censorship reflects the stupidity & insecurity of an autocratic regime.”
He observed that the portrayal of the “Jews as bogeyman (by Umno owned-daily) Utusan (Malaysia) & @TheEconomist censorship signify an insecure regime”.
[More to follow]
Why did KDN inked the lines on the death of one man, baharuddin?
Is it becos no one died?
Why KDN? Why?
Why is the truth unpublishable?
Why? Why? Why?
Answer:
KDN sees no truth, tells no truth, publishes no truth?
What’s the point of this blacking out exercise? Shake head.
They don’t black out WSJ. They wrote a rebuttal. They can do so to the Economist if they wish. Blacking out is childish. The more one blacks out the greater the curiosity of what has been blackened out – the truth? One can’t black out international readers of Economist. Domestic readers? I am sure majority has access to alternative media or on line version on the Net. Its like doing a thing without thinking though.
what about forming a party that has no racial divide? humans’ needs are the same so why the need to form so many parties and then co-operate?
So which party is the real communist party of malaysia?
Umno of course!
KDN should issue a statement…if I were you, Hishammuddin.
KDN should just tell the truth….that the Economist is economical with the truth; in fact, that the Economist is a pernicious liar – chronic, incorrigible, terminal and inoperable – therefore the Economist should be blacked out. Some time before the next GE, Economist will be banned.
No, Malaysians don’t need any more lies. UMNO wants the monopoly on lies – telling lies, selling lies, sleeping with liars, ok…anything to do with lies. UMNO wants exclusivity, pure, unadulterated lie-making including purveying, branding, spinning and sinning.
Explosive UMNO lies that can C4 the world – that would be even better.
Dumb, dumb, dumb!
KTK n CSL – Any wise words fr U 2 with Dr titles?
///DENPASAR, Bali – Malaysia will share its experience and expertise in improving the standards of under-performing schools with other Asean countries.
The School Improvement Programme implemented last year had yielded positive results, Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.///
The so-called improvement programmes are less useful than the system in the country. The education system, like other systems in the country are examples of what people should not do.
Malaysia contributes to the world in showing what can be worse, based on goernnment actions.
///Malaysiakini could not immediately verify the claim, but a comparison with the online version reveals that the lines struck out refer to allegations of police and government misconduct:
– ‘and one man died of a heart attack’, in the first paragraph.
– ‘The march itself was then banned, although the authorities offered Bersih a stadium to meet in – and then withdrew the offer’, in the second paragraph
– ‘The heavy-handed police tactics have provoked a lot of anger; the government has conceded an official investigation into claims of police brutality. In one instance (caught on film), police seemed to fire tear gas and water cannon into a hospital where protesters were sheltering from a baton charge’, in the fourth paragraph.///
The report was incomplete, and that was the reason why it was blocked out.
“- ‘and one man died of a heart attack’, in the first paragraph.” should have been written as ‘and one man ran away from the tear gas, And in exhaustion, he died of a heart attack.
”- ‘The march itself was then banned, although the authorities offered Bersih a stadium to meet in – and then withdrew the offer’, in the second paragraph”- it should have read:
‘The march itself had been banned and continued so after the Prime Minister offered the authorities offered Bersih a stadium to meet in – and then giving all excuses to deny them a stadium amounting to withdrawing the offer’
The fourth paragraph should continue to read: The Health Minister coerced the officials of the Tung Shun hospital to announce that the hospital was not subjected to tear gas attack.
One of the comments posted in that banned article—
Do you have any idea the current political and economic climate in Malaysia? It took a lot of courage for those who attended the march, knowing full well the intolerance of the present government. They took a bold move. It was intended to be peaceful and the government changed that with violence in the name of the law; and people were hurt. Democracy? No. It is blatant oppression. To be born, raised, and bred in Malaysia, I witnessed and experienced the changes brought upon the nation – it had not always been for the benefit for all but it has never been so bad. A nice country only on the surface. Scratch any deeper if you dare, and you’ll find raw wounds inflicted on ‘Malaysians’. The underlying tensions is very real. Malaysia is sadly very much divided. This is made worst under the schemes of the present government. Those in power are capable to do much worst, with very little regards for life. That is the ugly truth. Tolerance is merely given lip-service. I do not recognise the country I grew up in anymore. Alas, the greed of man, the pain you inflict, with no cares to all but your own. A patriotic cheer for those who stand for justice in peace! I would gladly join the rank when the time comes. A line would have to be drawn someday, somehow, if not soon.
http://www.economist.com/node/18959359/comments#comments
Economist is censored for its “lies”, huh?
UMNO wants exclusivity to lie – spanking lies, white lies, black lies, multi-hued lies – and for the branding and marketing of lies too, i guess.
Political affray in Malaysia
Taken to the cleaners
An overzealous government response to an opposition rally
Jul 14th 2011
…MALAYSIA is one of South-East Asia’s stabler nations; but a rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 9th in demand of electoral reform turned surprisingly nasty, leading to the arrest of more than 1,600 people. The police fired tear gas and water cannon into the crowd, and one man died of a heart attack. All those arrested were released fairly quickly, but Amnesty International, a London-based human-rights group, called it “the worst campaign of repression in the country for years”. The government’s reaction showed a lot of nervousness about how much opposition it can tolerate.
In fact the crackdown started a few weeks ago after “Bersih 2.0” announced that it was going to stage the rally. Bersih, also known as The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, is a loose alliance of NGOs and activists (bersih means “clean”). It argues that all candidates should be given access to the mainstream media and that indelible ink should be used to stop people voting more than once. It all sounds uncontroversial, but not to the government. Bersih was declared illegal on July 1st and about 200 activists were rounded up. The march itself was then banned, although the authorities offered Bersih a stadium to meet in—and then withdrew the offer.
Perhaps the government was looking back nervously to the first Bersih march, in 2007. On that occasion, too, thousands protested against the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government and demanded reform. Subsequently, in the 2008 general election, the BN lost its largest share of votes since 1957 when it started ruling the country after the British left. The current prime minister, Najib Razak, deputy prime minister in 2007 before taking over the top job in an internal party coup, must have feared that the second Bersih rally might be a similar portent. He has to hold an election before 2013, but wants to do so earlier to win his own mandate. Opposition politicians were quick to join Bersih. The pre-eminent leader of the opposition, Anwar Ibrahim, was shoved to the ground and injured in the affray.
None of this bodes well for Malaysia. The heavy-handed police tactics have provoked a lot of anger; the government has conceded an official investigation into claims of police brutality. In one instance (caught on film), police seemed to fire tear gas and water cannon into a hospital where protesters were sheltering from a baton charge. Few old laws were left untouched in the attempt to round up suspects before the march. It was reported that 30 people arrested in Penang were investigated under Section 122 of the Penal Code for the charge of waging war against the king. Dragging in the constitutional monarch, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, seemed particularly desperate, reminiscent of the abuse of the monarchy’s position in neighbouring Thailand. On the eve of the rally, the king came out with a statement reminding everyone that “street demonstrations bring more bad than good, although the original intention is good.”
Mr Najib defended the police and accused the marchers of sowing chaos. Dismissing the motives of Bersih, he cast it as a desperate attempt by Mr Anwar to grab power. The immediate upshot is that Mr Najib may choose to delay calling for an election for some time, to let things settle down. He presumably hopes that if he waits long enough, people will have forgotten about this ugly incident. But the longer-term effects are hard to judge. It might also help to unite a fractious opposition against what they portray as an assault on democracy.
NR, HH, polis, UmnoB/BN: 愚蠢, 做贼心虚
So dumb, dumb: still using an out-dated method n they didn’t even realise
dat d world has changed
dat there is such a wonderful thing as d Internet n e-magazine
dat no gomen can black out news n get away with murder
D more they black out things, d more they hide – bagus, they stimulate worldwide interest n d more they will b exposed; d SPARK of change will soon bcome an INFERNO 4 them