Wei Kiat's Blog

Nov 4, 2006
Reporting the news as it is

'If you listen to Reporters Without Borders, we rank very low down for press freedom because we don't allow this, we don't allow that. We are down with Iraq, Zimbabwe.

'You read our newspapers... We do not put out false news and we make sure our people are well-informed. What we do not want is contentious reporting and a clash of contentious reporting.

'If you watch American television, if you watch Fox, and you watch NBC and you watch CNN, at the end of the day...you don't know where is the truth because the truth does not support a certain line that they are choosing.*

'So we tell the press, don't shoot any line. Just report it as it is and if you have an agenda, you write a commentary, don't include it as facts, as news.

'And the question of press freedom, I say never mind, I've got the best-informed press in the world, they measure up.**

'We know our Chinese (newspaper Lianhe) Zaobao has six million hits every day from China. They (the Chinese) want to know what's happening. The Straits Times is being accessed by many think-tanks in America for regional news. They know it's straight, it's not biased, it's reported as it is.'

Is it just me, or something strange is going on above?

*"you don't know where is the truth because the truth does not support a certain line that they are choosing."
Something is not truth if it does not support their "line"?

**"And the question of press freedom, I say never mind, I've got the best-informed press in the world, they measure up."
Don't care about press freedom. As long as the press is best-informed, it is good press.

Did I read wrongly somewhere?

And next up, Johor Sultan

’Dismantle the causeway’
He says it undermines Johor’s economy, launches attack on ‘dirty foreigners.’ AFP.
Nov 4, 2006

Johor Baru - The sultan of Malaysia's southern Johor state Saturday called for the scrapping of the nation's first land link to Singapore, and launched an attack on "dirty" foreigners.

Speaking at the launch of ambitious plans to turn Johor into a thriving economic hub, the state's Sultan Iskandar al-Marhum said the 83-year-old causeway to neighbouring Singapore was undermining the state's economy and was a vestige of colonialism.

"The colonialists built it to develop Keppel Harbour in Singapore," Sultan Iskandar, 74, said in remarks broadcast live on television.

"Many people think foreigners are great but I think they are dirty," he added.

"If the causeway is removed, then the economy will develop," he told a crowd of some 2,000 onlookers, who cheered and clapped at his suggestion.

The causeway was completed in 1923 in pre-independence Malaysia and Singapore, then both under British colonial rule.

Carrying piped water from Malaysia to Singapore, it also serves as a road, rail and pedestrian link from the state capital Johor Baru to the town of Woodlands in northern Singapore, and sees daily heavy traffic.

The causeway has been at the centre of a bitter dispute between Malaysia and Singapore, with Malaysia calling for its replacement with a new bridge until dropping those plans in April this year.

Malaysians complain the height of the causeway limits shipping traffic to Malaysian ports and argue a new bridge would allow ships easier access.

"Let ships go through," said Sultan Iskandar, who was flanked by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the launch.

Sultan Iskandar, one of the few outspoken members of Malaysia's royalty, is the hereditary ruler of Johor and has a mostly ceremonial role.

He caused ripples in Malaysian society last month when he called on former premier Mahathir Mohamad to stop an ongoing feud with the government and "just behave like a pensioner" – AFP

The Malaysian daily, The Star, reported that the Sultan’s call shocked the 2,000-strong audience and thousands of viewers at home of the live telecast over RTM 1 and TV3

His call was a digression from his written text.

In his address the Ruler, who was clad in a T-shirt, said that he would not "give face" (bagi muka) to the foreigners (Mat Sallehs) and urged the people not to hold them in high regard.

He also reminded locals and their children to be wary of them as they were vultures.

He also paid tribute to former Johor state secretary Amar Abdul Rahman Andak who had fought against the British during his time. - Star

He has no idea how much tourists from Singapore are giving to Malaysia yearly.

And seriously, those very old should just retire.

Really.