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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR.
MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 26/10/98
Tajuk/Title : THE OPENING OF THE COMMONWEALTH
PRESS UNION BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
I would like to thank the organisers of the 22nd
conference of the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) for the
honour of addressing this distinguished international
gathering of newsmen and newswomen. It is certainly a
pleasure to welcome so many prominent editors and writers
from the Commonwealth countries.
2. I am happy to note that your Editors Forum in Penang
last week was successful. I hope since your arrival here
you have seen something of what is really happening in
Malaysia. By choosing to travel from Penang to Kuala
Lumpur by road, you must have seen something more of our
country and hopefully experienced the warm hospitality of
Malaysians.
3. The Press as you know is a very powerful institution.
It is not called the Fourth Estate for nothing. It is one
of the powers which determine the fate of human society.
And it is more so now because your reach has become global
and more significantly it has overcome distance and time
completely. You can actually report events across the
whole world and throughout the world even as they happen.
Nothing, or almost nothing is left to the imagination.
4. Such power is frightening. As always such power can
be a force for enormous good. You can awaken the
conscience of the world as you report graphically the
tragedies in different corners of the world. The stories
about how the financial turmoil in Asia has resulted in
children being abandoned by their parents and how they are
forced to scrounge for food in rubbish heaps are heart-
rending. Then there are those macabre reports of bodies
being dug from mass graves in Bosnia. One cannot help but
feel involved in these tragedies.
5. The human race felt elated as the first man stepped
on the moon. Elsewhere there are reports of more great
human achievements. The Nobel Laureates who discovered
the remedies for all kinds of previously incurable
diseases, those who bravely stood up against injustice and
those who devise diabolical formulas for making money
perpetually, without limits. We hear and see them and
feel the effects of their achievements almost as if we are
standing next to them, hearing them and feeling them.
6. Some stories spread through the media are
heartwarming. Some are true and some are false. Some
really happened and some are figments of the fertile human
imagination.
7. I have been reading a book by my favourite author,
Jeffrey Archer called "The Eleventh Commandment". I crave
your indulgence to relate a small part of the book because
it illustrates both the power of the media and the good it
can do. It is fictional of course but it is nevertheless
credible and may happen in real life.
8. In this book the head of the CIA, one tough lady who
used to order the assassination of an embarrassing foreign
politician without bothering to inform the President, was
castigated by the latter for the alleged CIA killing of a
Presidential candidate in Columbia. The Director calmly
denied that the assassination was by one of her boys. She
then decided that the CIA hitman must be liquidated.
9. The man was sent to Russia to kill another
Presidential candidate, a particularly obnoxious ex-
Communist. The CIA network then arranged for the hitman
to be arrested by the Russians for attempted killing of
the candidate who later won the election. The hitman will
of course be executed since this is Russia, a country that
has not yet heard about human rights and the cruelty of
legitimately taking human lives.
10. In the meantime the wife of the hitman contacted his
secretary to find out where he is. The secretary being
infatuated with our hero finally discovered that he is the
man reported by a Turkish newspaper to have been arrested
in Leningrad for attempted assassination of the Communist
Presidential candidate. On her way to inform the wife she
was killed through a road accident arranged by the CIA.
11. When the wife finally discovered the fate of her
friend, she rang up the deputy director of the CIA who
promptly denied that he knew any such person as the
husband of the caller or the secretary of the husband.
When the wife pointed out that he was actually at her
party recently and had talked to the secretary concerned
he told her that she must be imagining as he does not know
her or had been to her house.
12. At this stage she came up with her trump card. It
seemed her daughter had video-taped the party and there
was a scene of him talking to the secretary. For good
measure she said that the conversation she was having with
the deputy director was being recorded and if he tried to
dispose her off or to search for the tapes, the T.V.
networks would receive full copies of the video-tape of
the party and the telephone conversation.
13. At the mention of the T.V. networks getting the tapes
the attitude of the deputy director changed completely.
14. Now you can see how the media can play a powerful
role in ensuring that justice will be done and the
miscreants prevented from misusing their power.
15. Unfortunately the media itself is often tempted to
misuse power. I am not a fan of President Bill Clinton
but I do sympathise with him. He only hugged Monica
Lewinsky once, at least in public. He may have hugged her
more times in private, that we don't have any pictures of.
But that one hug has prefaced every report on President
Clinton whether the subject matter had anything to do with
his single instance of discretion or not. If the CNN is
to be believed Bill Clinton has hugged Monica a thousand
times, twelve times a day ever since CNN resurrected that
particular episode among the file pictures. With the
passage of time the hug has improved in terms of clarity
and vividness. There is no mistaking the look of
adoration in Monica's eyes and the body language of the
President of the United States. The viewers, Americans
and others must assume that the President must really know
Monica intimately and all those stories about the phone-
calls to the Senators even while he dallied with Monica
must be the truth, the absolute truth and nothing but the
truth.
16. As I said I am not a fan of President Clinton but I
do feel that that kind of presentation via television is
not quite fair to the President. There is no one in the
United States who has not seen it and been influenced by
it. How can anyone sit in judgement over him without
being biased, without preconception? How can the
impeachment of the President be fair and just?
17. In Malaysia we are experiencing something similar. We
have a serious political problem made more serious by the
manner the problem is being presented to the whole world
by the all-powerful International Media. All over the
world Ministers are dismissed and they normally pack their
bags and go off. Ministers have also been charged in
courts even in this country, have been found guilty and in
at least one case have been sentenced to death. There was
no demonstration and charges that the courts will be
biased. A Malaysian court once declared that the ruling
party was illegal and there was nothing the Government of
the party concerned could do about it.
18. But unfortunately one Minister refused to go quietly
and to be tried in the normal manner. The international
media sensed an enduring scoop. After all this is one of
those backward Asian countries whose understanding of
justice and fair play is quite limited. This particular
country had in the past dared to challenge the West and
its Media, its values and its economic and financial
theories and practices. I cannot help but feel that the
International, or more precisely the Western media, would
like to teach Malaysia a lesson, to pull it down a few
pegs more.
19. Malaysia has never had a good press. None of the
positive things we have achieved have been reported. A
multi-racial country that is stable and economically
successful is not a subject of interest to the powerful
among the International Media. But a failure of any kind
makes good copy.
20. And so every time Malaysia appears on the T.V. screen
for whatever reason, the pictures of rioting and the
famous black eye are shown. Unflattering comments
invariably precede any mention of the word Malaysia. The
impression given to people all over the world is that
Malaysia is in a state of perpetual turmoil, a Police
state where Police brutality is a daily, or even an hourly
occurrence. Occassionally pictures of armoured cars
manned by African blacks are shown when reporting about
the demonstrations without explaining how these Africans
came to be driving armoured cars in Malaysia. The viewers
cannot be blamed if they assume that Malaysia is in Africa
or Malaysia is in the habit of employing African
mercenaries to do the dirty work.
21. I am not denying that the black eye is real. I
regret it and I am concerned about it. There is a full
investigation being made. There will be no cover-up and
the guilty party will be punished. I must be crazy if I
wanted the black eye which the police then paraded before
the world through the media, print and electronic. Yet
the media implied that the Malaysian dictator is presiding
over a police state where giving black-eyes to prisoners
is common practice. Indeed one writer said that the
subject was beaten to a pulp.
22. I am not denying that there has been some rioting and
breaking into buildings by the rioters. The police may
have been rough but you can compare their handling of the
demonstrators with the handling by European and American
law enforcement officers. Invariably the latter are more
brutal. But of course the Governments of these highly
civilized countries are not described as dictatorial and
condoning police brutality. Nor are the video clips shown
every time there is mention of the country concerned.
23. I am not asking that the media report only the good
things. I am asking that the media be fair, be balanced,
be factual. It is not necessary to preface every mention
of the name Clinton with his hugging of Lewinsky. Maybe a
few times for viewers who have poor memory. By now there
is no one in the world who has not seen it. So it is no
longer necessary.
24. If the media must report on all those agitating
against the Governments of these developing countries, at
least give the Government side a fair exposure as well.
The media accuses the Malaysian Government and those of
other developing countries of controlling the press. But
isn't the media doing the same. The International Media
never give the Government side an airing. In fact they
distort reports about the Government and go so far as to
fabricate unflattering stories about the Government.
25. The Government of the country is elected by the
people in fair elections. Presently an attempt is being
made to topple the Government through street
demonstrations and other undemocratic ways. How can the
media support this attempt and at the same time talk about
democracy? Support the opponents of the Governments by
all means but the media must not advocate an undemocratic
overthrow of the Governments. I don't know about other
countries but in Malaysia the opposition can win elections
and even form Governments. I myself have lost an election
before. I am perhaps the only dictator who has to stand
for elections before dictating.
26. In making slanted and distorted reports the media is
doing a disservice to its clients. This is especially so
with economic reports and magazines. The analysis made is
based usually on the agenda of the media concerned. If it
is not in favour of a country for whatever reason,
disinformation is used to blight that country. Tourists
and investors will then shun the country. At times as a
result of this the economy of the country fails and the
prediction of instability and turmoil becomes true.
27. We are living in a shrinking world. We are all close
neighbours in a global village. We should take this
closeness to develop good neighbourliness, the kind that
is usually found in villages. Only good can come of this.
We shouldn't beggar our neighbour. We should prosper them
instead. We should prosper them not at our expense but by
mutual help where wealth can expand and be shared by all.
There is really no need for a zero sum game. You don't
have to win by causing others to lose. That is what the
currency traders believe in; impoverish others in order to
make money for themselves. It is not a very considerate
way of doing things especially when being considerate and
caring would cost them nothing.
28. The media has a role to play here. It can promote a
positive concept of neighbourliness. It can help in the
shaping of a new world culture, a culture of sharing, a
culture that will make this global village a village of
good caring neighbours. The media can help to bring about
peace.
29. Yes there should be the right to know but knowing the
inner thoughts of parties in conflict, airing them
worldwide, will not promote peace and prosperity if the
inner thoughts are not very charitable. We all know that
we do have nasty thoughts even about our best friends but
we remain best friends by not telling explicitly about
what we really think about them. There is no need to
know. A little hypocrisy perhaps but it is all in the
interest of something good.
30. So do we really want to know about everything? Is
there really this need to know? Has not the media
invented this need in order to justify a lot of conflict
provoking stories?
31. Let us think again. We had thought that the Internet
would enable everyone to correct the untruths in the media
reports. But now we are seeing lies being spread through
the Internet. Again the gifts that we receive from the
development of new technologies are being abused. Do we
never learn?
32. It is easy to become frustrated. We are not
approaching the new century, the new millennium in the
correct way. We appear to be carrying the baggage of past
misdeeds and misconceptions along with us. The new
century is apparently not going to be any better than the
century we are leaving, the century which saw two world
wars, 200 million people killed, poverty and starvation on
an unprecedented scale. The technological advances we
have made have only improved our capacity to destroy.
Nuclear bombs and chemical weapons are suppose to make
wars no longer a way of solving the disputes between
nations. But we have very cleverly made these devices
"safe" it seems. In the meantime we invent better weapons
for more effective killing.
33. With all these, what is the role of the media?
Merely to report, perhaps to incite, to make conflicts
worse or to work for a better world. The media is
powerful, in most instances more powerful than Governments
and politicians. You can make or break anyone and
anything.
34. We have seen you at work. I have described some of
this to you. You should rethink your role. You have the
power. Please use it well for the future of Mankind.
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