Minister of Censorship
May 21st, 2008 by Tian
The new Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Chik would like to be seen as an liberal minded BN man.
I knew him when he was in opposition. As the Youth Chief of Semangat 46, he should have understood the evil of press control, restrictive media access etc.
Now he is wearing different shoes, I fully understand that he has to toe the line of BN. However I was disappointed that the Minister spoke like a school headmaster rather than a modern democratic minded individual.
In the debate this afternoon (21 May 2008), the Information Minister argued that the ministry has no intension to extend the length of parliament live broadcast. His justification was to protect the sanctity of the parliament. He said live broadcast might encourage MPs to play to the grandstand for their “orang kampong”, hence debates tend to focus on nitty gritty rather than issues of national importance.
The Minister then argued that the restriction is to prevent the public from losing confidence. “When the public see how the MPs behave,” said Shabery, “they will be disillusion with the parliament, the government and all institutions. This is very risky for the country …”
Minister of Information has assumed a role of censor. He must be very proud that he now hold the power to decide what is suitable and what is not suitable for public viewing.
Some BN MPs had suggested that the Ministry allows the private TV channel on Astro to broadcast our parliament proceeding. That too was dismissed. The Minister said that it is enough for the people to utilize internet to stream the State Legislative Assembly session, as it is done by Selangor and Terengganu.
I would add, if the Minister does not trust the wisdom and maturity of the voters, he may instruct the TV station to label parliament broadcast “X-rated”.
p/s: we are having another extended parliament sitting until midnight today.
I say ‘e contrario’ to our Y B Information Minister. If he’s worried that some of the elected representatives from the government would make utter and complete fools of themselves (wouldn’t protest so much if foolish antics were strictly displayed by members of the Opposition) than I say worry ‘no more’. My admiration for our esteemed Members of Parliament goes across the board be it ….. YB Kalabakan, YB Gombak, YB Abdul Hadi from PAS , YB Kepong and for that matter YB Zaid Ibrahim.
Ordinary citizens are able to discern the MP’s playing to the galleries (or TV cameras in this case) and those who disregard them and just go about their business of fighting for their Rakyat. So my dear Information Minister FULL COVEREAGE PLEEESE……!
Hi,
all these people of the BN are very good in using the government machinery to hide their heinous crimes. What to do old habits, the Rakyat can change that for them. Vote again wisely VOTE NOT BN
ahould be the call of the day from now on. These cancerous party with their umno majority in front is drawing a veiled threat to the very existance of a multi-cultural society.
Whether to protect the sanctity of the august house
Or the sanity of the electrolates with or without ‘mouse’
With noisy disputes it’s easy to mistaken that there’s a session of bouse
Giving rise to attempts to bring out the wet blanket for a public douse
(C) Samuel Goh Kim Eng - 220508
http://MotivationInMotion.blogspot.com
Thur. 22nd May 2008.
YB Tian Chua.
Please go on presure Shabery Chik to have live coverage till 11.30am.
We want to see how Minister/Deputy Minister answer questions.
As till now, 90% of answers given is of ordinary reply, standard text without any value. We need figures to express the result as well as physical progress. All this while only allocation on 9th MP, but what is the Project Plan, Time-Line and Expected results.
As it is the rising cost essential items such as rice, flour, chicken etc going-up, what BN goverment doing?. Before, we use to see Minister sending Task-Force to check the wholesaler/Distributor and bring those opportunist to book. Now even Ministers pointing fingers to each other (Shahrir vs Mustapha Muhamad).
Please put to stop all this wayang and get them into action and deliver.
The Minister is obviously trying to avoid publicity of shameness to the Question Time where responsible minister either does not know how to respond or having little knowledge of the subject.
The public is entitle to know the responds and the conduct of their Members of Parliament.
The broadcast is of national importance!!
Really sound like he is worry about rakyat knowing too much.
Those who has something to hide will always worry to show their card.
What do you have to hide? We are not stupid la!
Even if you hide, the video will make it to youtube anyway, so you are going to banned youtube too?
Very typical mind set of a loser who depend stand on others shoulder to be successful.
Shiok Guy
http://shiokguy.blogspot.com/
Sdr Tian Chua,
Regards to you and your Reformasi team.
As for press freedom, we can only hope for the best. All BN ministers are the same. When they were in the Opposition, like Mr Rais Yatim, Tengku Razaleigh and this new Minister of Information, they talk about freedom of movement, freedom of speech, democracy and what not, even, Mr Rais Yatim talk about abolishment of the ISA, but when they went back to the oppressive camp BN — that is, the are the Nazis of Malaysia.