Oleh : Y.A.B. DATO SERI DR.
MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat : HOTEL GRAND BLUE WAVE, SHAH ALAM
Tarikh : 21-09-2000
Tajuk : THE LAUNCH OF THE INTERNATIONAL
CONVENTION ON ROLE OF THE MEDIA
IN NON-ALIGNED COUNTRIES
Penyampai : PM
Firstly, let me thank the Association of Malay
Journalists Malaysia for inviting me to open this
International Conference on the Role of the Media in
Non-Aligned Countries here today. It is indeed a
pleasure and privilege for me to address this
international convention, especially when the role of
the media in countries of the South in this age of
information technology is becoming even more important.
2. The press or the media is undoubtedly a very
powerful institution. In most instances it is more
powerful than Governments and politicians. It is no
wonder even today we find Governments and politicians
are wary and terrified of the media because you can
make or break anyone and anything. As you are aware
there have been many cases where politicians have to
step down from office following disclosures by the
media, some of which are fabricated.
3. The adage that `The pen is mightier than the
sword' is still true today. In fact it is also because
the Internet has made worldwide distribution of
information, whether factual or invented, available to
everyone, that the power of the pen has been enhanced.
Even TV broadcast through the Internet is now available
for anyone to use or misuse.
4. Governments of course should not control the
media. It is morally wrong. But is it morally right
for certain people with their own agenda to control the
press and use it to spread misinformation even?
Governments in a democratic country are elected by the
people, but the people who really control the press are
elected by no one. Yet it is considered right in a
democracy for the media to be controlled by these
people who actually represent no one but themselves.
5. Perhaps it is pertinent at this point to define
what really is a free press. It is one which is
available to everyone who may wish to express an
opinion. Just about anyone should have this right. As
long as the opinion is sensitive to the interest of the
particular society, as long as it is free of incitement
it should be published.
6. Of course the demand for space may be too much for
a particular media to handle but at least a summary of
similar views could be made and published or broadcast
and the individuals expressing these views made known.
7. Reporting of events should be factual first. If
an opinion is to be expressed by anyone it should be
made known that it is an opinion of what in fact
happens. There should be no bias in reporting the
facts. It is not right for example to describe the
terrorists as "Muslim terrorist" unless the religions
of all terrorists are always stated in all reports. It
is not right for reports about Malaysia to be qualified
with "where the media is censored" but it is right to
make a factual report on the censorship of the press in
Malaysia giving real evidence of this.
8. Reports should always be balanced. What is done
right should also be reported alongside what is done
wrong.
9. I will be the first to admit that what I am
suggesting is difficult for the press to achieve. These
news and reports and opinions would not sell. But if
the press finds it difficult to do what is right and
fair, why should it expect others, including the
Government to always do the right thing? If all the
media adopt the same stance there will be none to take
advantage. If any try to take advantage by trying to
be popular then the media should act against the
recalcitrant members.
10. The press is powerful. There is no doubt that it
can help do a lot of good for society. It can motivate
society. It can inspire society. It can help develop
the kind of values and attitudes which will contribute
to the development and progress of society. It can
promote truth and banish lies. It can of course expose
wrong doings when in fact wrongs are being done. But
it must not have an agenda of its own. This is because
when it has one, its reporting will be biased and truth
will go out of the window.
11. Responsibility is something that the press must
impose on itself. The good of the community or the
nation or international relations must be taken into
consideration. It may at times be necessary to expose
state secrets in order to prevent conflicts. It may
also be necessary not to expose things in order to
prevent conflicts. A high sense of responsibility
should help to determine the choice between the need to
expose and the need to maintain secrecy.
12. During the recent currency crisis the press played
a prominent role in aggravating the destructive effect
of currency trading. The press sides totally with the
currency traders. They could do no wrong. Anyone who
condemns them were not only not reported but they were
blasted by the press. These people were said to be "in
denial". These people were said to be ignorant,
incapable of understanding international finance.
These people were said to be trying to hide their
corruption, their mismanagement of their economy etc.
13. What the press refuses to point out is that these
same administrations were responsible for turning
moribund post colonial economies into tiger and dragon
economies. Their countries were peaceful, people were
employed and there was no food shortages. If these
Governments were the cause of the currency depreciation
and the financial turmoil which followed, why were they
able to develop and prosper their countries and create
millions of jobs for their people in the past. Why
didn't their currencies depreciate earlier, indeed why
did they have viable currencies at all. They could not
have become corrupt etc only in 1997. They must have
been corrupt long before, yet they had fast growing
economies.
14. When it was pointed out that it was the currency
traders who caused the currencies to be depreciated in
order to make huge profits for themselves, the press
backed the currency traders in denying this. It was
not the Government which was in denial. It was the
press which was frozen in a state of denial.
15. Today the IMF, the World Bank and even prominent
currency traders have admitted that currency trading
was responsible, that the market is not perfect and
cannot be relied upon to determine rates of exchange.
The press is not yet ready to get out of the state of
being "in denial". Yet the press could do research,
could listen to other views, could examine the views of
those people whom they had dismissed before in order to
enlighten the public as to what really happened, as to
who was responsible for the great East Asian economic
turmoil. They could do the world a great favour, even
help with economic recovery all round by simply
revealing the truth.
16. When Malaysia implemented its own plan to turn
around the economy, it was thoroughly condemned by the
press for imposing capital control. It was told that
its economy would collapse totally. Even when it
didn't, even when the economy made a fast recovery it
was reported that the recovery was not real or was
inferior in some mysterious ways to the recovery of IMF-
aided countries.
17. The fact is that the press didn't even know what
was done by Malaysia, didn't even know what is meant by
selective capital control. And the press did not want
to find out for fear of having to admit its mistakes.
And so it continues to talk of Malaysian capital
control and demand to know when it would be lifted.
They keep on saying that capital control is bad. In
the short term it may work, but it would not in the
long term. They hint darkly that if Malaysia fails to
lift the controls it will get into grave trouble. But
they do not explain why this should happen. This is
their new wisdom and all their members repeat it every
time they mention capital controls and Malaysia.
18. Of course they cannot explain their premonitions
as they don't even know what Malaysia had done. We
have not imposed capital control. We have imposed
selective capital control, affecting only short-term
capital investments over a period of 12 months.
Capital investments in production capacities (i.e. FDI)
are not affected at all. And so they are still coming.
19. Far from adversely affecting Malaysia's share
trading, the 12 month control over short-term
speculative capital has resulted in the highest share
market recovering in East Asia. The Index went up from
262 to nearly 1000 at one time. Those who invested in
the shares, including the foreigners who were not
allowed to liquidate their investments made almost 300
per cent capital gains. The listed companies are now
healthy again and are contributing to the economic
recovery.
20. The most important thing done by Malaysia was to
restore currency sovereignty. Now only the Government
can determine the exchange rate of the Ringgit. The
currency traders cannot gain access to the Ringgit and
are therefore unable to short sell and devalue the
Ringgit. The Ringgit is still under valued compared to
its original value of RM2.50 to USD1.00. But what is
important is not the value as much as the stability of
the exchange rate. This facilitates business and trade
and therefore helps with the economic recovery.
21. None of the foreign papers bother to understand
the measures taken by Malaysia. Every time they report
on Malaysia they talk of capital control and they
repeat ad nauseum that this will mysteriously destroy
Malaysia's economy. First it would destroy Malaysia's
economy immediately. Now they are saying it will
destroy in the long term. Why it would do this and how
it would do this, they do not care to explain. It is
quite likely that they don't understand this either.
They are merely parroting something they heard
somewhere. But then they have always been like this.
22. It is regrettable that the international media
should be so negative. They have missed a golden
opportunity to contribute to humankind's well-being and
development. They can, with their vast influence and
power, spread knowledge, help bring nations closer
together, reduce conflicts between and within nations,
promote the best in human values, shape the
civilisation of the modern world through promoting
technology and science and generally help people of
differing ethnicity and culture to understand and
cooperate for mutual benefit. The media can do all
these if they choose to do so, if they choose to be
ethical and responsible.
23. Let us hope that they can reform themselves.
There are still a few good men among them. These
people must assert themselves, must re-examine the role
of the media, the International media in particular, re-
examine their quality and attempt to upgrade it and
look beyond its immediate need to sell and to make
money. For the European journalists, learn to be
humble, stop assuming that you know better than non-
whites about how to run countries and administer
justice. Stop being arrogant and assuming that you
know everything because that is far from the truth.
Stop being racists. Be human and humane and the world
will thank you for contributing to the new civilisation
that should be the mark of the 21st Century.
|
|