The Malaysian government has dealt the lethal blow that many analysts saw coming. The Home Ministry has invoked the dreaded clampdown on media freedom. The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily have been slammed with a three-month curfew because they have covered the 1MDB debacle in a manner that the government deems "prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest".
It is a day of mourning, not only in Malaysia but for all responsible journalism the world over. If what has befallen Malaysian press today does not meet with a global show of protest, then the Statue of Liberty, under whose very shadow the Obama administration is preaching democracy to the world through trade pacts, is also dead.
In a world shaped after the penny press marking humanity’s rise and walk to build a democratic world that we all embrace and relish in the name of capitalism, here we go again, setting the clock backward in Malaysia, a nation that Barack Obama sees fit to label as “moderate” and a “beacon” to the third world rogue nations.
Even the faraway kingdom of Bhutan has its head on its shoulders with its greater press freedom there. Thanks to its educated king and young parliamentary democracy, it showcases the fact that no media can cause public unrest, only mis-governance.
How will the US president even want to or have the blind audacity to set foot on Malaysian shores again, come November 2015, when the government has already punished press freedom in the name of “national interests”?
If it is so deadly a crime that the owners of The Edge publication have committed, then what must Obama do to his own Wall Street Journal or even the New York Times, who have all also reported breaking news on Malaysia’s 1MDB?
Strange. A country that proclaims and pledges to the US president that it is a showcase for moderation and democracy in action, now blatantly shuts down a media for thinking and writing what certainly many in the press world will deem as responsible journalism.
Malaysia under the Najib administration now only further shames itself with the manner in which it is mismanaging itself over the 1MDB debacle that has gone round the world’s media circuit. They forget or choose to operate like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand, not aware of the fact that in this age of the digital platforms, curtailing press freedom unleashes a tidal wave on online news portals that strike like lightning across the four corners of the globe.
That fact that you can no longer bury truth and lies in sand with press muzzling was honed back loud and clear by the Edge Media Group publisher and chief executive officer Ho Kay Tat who is reported to have responded, “To our readers and fellow Malaysians, you can continue to read our work through our digital platforms like theedgemarkets.com, theedgeproperty.com, themalaysianinsider.com and edgy.com.”
In this age and times where media freedom and democracy cannot be colour coded and teased apart, more so when the US is working overtime in propping up Malaysia’s ratings on several counts with the hope of driving through the TPPA, the Najib administration will find itself short-circuited and in an even more embarrassing convolution of sorts over the 1MDB.
Meanwhile, the world bodies of journalism must and will flock in a show of upholding the penny press philosophy of bringing the truth to the people that matter – the citizens of every nation, leaders of all nations, and communities networked in this new age order.
The prime minister of Malaysia has, in allowing the muzzling of press independence, seen to the sinking of the nation’s reputation even further in the mud of suspicion and shame.
We must condemn this action in the best interests of Malaysia’s dignity and honour in pages of world history.
* J.D. Lovrenciear reads The Malaysian Insider.
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