[Groop] Mightier than the sword.

[Azamin Zainol Abidin]

Well, after read the #2,3,&4 of the mini series, what did I conclude is some
sort of the pressure press from the Relmihio - stories/news given by him and
the threat to the "information phamplets" does reflect to what is going on
in MAlaysia now where all mainstream media are pro/or owned by ruling party
or those closed to them.  These mainstream newspaper only report news or
even altering news about the ruling party while in the same time report all
the bad news/altered news about opposition parties.  In the same time, the
government ban/not renew the permits to the small newspaper which reports
balance news or pro opposition parties and limited the circulation and
duration of the opposition owned party newspaper.  (in malaysia
newspapes/magazines need a permit from the government every year to be
published) Because of this, nearly 1000 of malaysian journalist made a
petition for the government to make the press more free to report a balance
news and they made an online newspaper (http://www.malaysiakini.com) to show
their dissatisfiction.  All these happened after our Prime Minister sacked
his deputy Prime Minister with the accusations of sodomy and sexual
misconduct where the sacked deputy prime minister dissmissed it as a high
level conspiracy bacause he want to expose/get rid of
corruptions/nepotism/cronism in the government.  bacause of the action by
the government, The Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad was listed as  "10
Worst Enemies of the Press".

In the last November election, there was many accusations that the ruling
Party cheat during the election and the condition is as in the "man of the
people" series. where there was cheats during the elections and the leader
is sorrounded by his cronies where all government contracts were given to
his cronies.

Azamin
Reporting from Malaysia.

See also:

http://www.malaysiakini.com/scoops/ba_adds.htm
http://www.malaysiakini.com/scoops/anwar_interview.htm
http://www.malaysiakini.com/archives_letters/2000/may/may5/letter1.htm
http://www.malaysiakini.com/archives_letters/2000/may/may5/letter3.htm

Read also:

Newspaper censors Mahathir from press enemies list
             Ng Boon Hooi

             3.30pm, THURS: A leading Chinese newspaper, Nanyang Siang Pau,
has conspicuously censored Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's name in its
news report on the "10 Worst Enemies of the Press" today.

             The Nanyang report which quoted AFP and datelined New York, May
3, mentioned all the nine names from the Committee to Protect Journalists'
(CPJ) list, including the top three, namely Sierra Leone's Foray Sankoh,
Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, but has
excluded Mahathir.

             Mahathir has for the second consecutive year been named as one
of the worst enemies of the press by New York-based journalists organisation
CPJ, which released the latest list yesterday in conjunction with World
Press Freedom Day ("Mahathir in top 10 enemies of press list", May 3).

             A Nanyang editor told malaysiakini that the newspaper had
originally decided to put "leader of Malaysia" in place of "Mahathir
Mohamad"; however, it was later deleted by another editor.

             Nevertheless, Nanyang today carried a report in a separate
section of the newspaper quoting Human Resources Minister Dr. Fong Chan Onn,
who had reacted to the inclusion of Mahathir's name in the CPJ list.

             According to the report, Fong accused the Western powers of
using the media to blacken Mahathir's image as they do not wish to see him
as the spokesperson for the developing countries.

             Fong also added that Mahathir is a responsible leader and that
his actions in not wanting to burden the country and people with debts
proved that he is "caring" of Malaysians.

             He felt that the West is against Mahathir because the country
did not accept aid from International Monetary Fund, but has managed to
overcome its economic crisis independently.

             Meanwhile, apart from the "censored" Nanyang report, none of
the major Chinese, Malay and English newspapers reported on the CPJ's "10
worst enemies of the press" list.


                 Sodomy trial adjourned pending appeal
             Ajinder Kaur

             11.45am, THURS: The sodomy trial of jailed deputy prime
minister Anwar Ibrahim was adjourned this morning, pending an appeal to the
Court of Appeal, to a date yet to be fixed.

             "The court has been adjourned until the disposal of the Court
of Appeal's decision," said defence counsel Karpal Singh, after emerging
from a meeting in judge Arifin Jaka's chamber.

             Anwar has filed an appeal against Arifin's ruling on April 21
that Prime Pinister Mahathir Mohamad need not appear as a witness in his sex
trial.

             Another defence counsel, Pawancheek Merican, later told
reporters that the defence has yet to file the petition of appeal stating
the grounds to challenge the ruling.

             "We are still waiting for the records from the court. This is a
narrow issue whether Dr Mahathir should come or not," Merican said.

             Anwar said that the real reason for Arifin's ruling was the
Umno general assembly, which is due to meet next weekend.

             Meanwhile, Pawancheek added that the defence counsel would also
file a notice of appeal to the Federal Court to overturn the Court of
Appeal's judgement last Saturday that dismissed Anwar's appeals against both
his April 1999 conviction on four corruption charges and six-year jail
sentence.

             In the current trial, Anwar and his adopted brother Sukma
Dermawan are charged with sodomising his wife's former driver Azizan Abu
Bakar at Sukma's apartment in Tivolli Villas, Bangsar on "one night at
7.45pm, between January and March, 1993".

             The one-time heir apparent to the prime minister post has
repeatedly denied all charges and said they were fabricated by political
rivals to end his political career.