Recently an old friend emailed me a long article on how the media and the spin doctors managed to hoodwinked us to the point of controlling us without us realising that we are being controlled. Subterfuge incessant messages pummelling into our inner consciousness into submission were done daily non stop. With clever array of half truths, misinformation, disinformation and blatant lies, we cannot think for ourselves anymore. The Nazi used the same technique, ‘if you tell the lie often enough, people would believe it’ – that was the mantra. A few cases in point. How many of us had to adjust our daily schedule just to fit in our favourite TV programmes. How many parents, audience, or fans cried when their proteges failed or got kicked out of Akademi Fantasia? The most recent case was the Yellow Demonstration in KL. Judging by the local media coverage, it was just a tiny event. BERNAMA reported that about 3,000 turned up. The STAR reported the news on page 8 with a slighly bigger turn out, around 4,000. But the truth was only visible to those who were caught in the middle. They knew that it a was huge event with crowd nearing 50,000. Not mentioning those who were stranded due to the police roadblocks. I imagine to those living in remote places like Pahang, Perak, or Sabah would not know anything about it unless they had access to AlJazeera or CNN or BBC. Another point is the the slogan that says ‘ini bukan budaya kita’. I agree, rioting is not our culture but peaceful demonstration helped us to gain our independence. I am sure you remember those images of our fore fathers and mothers in their white shirts, baggy trousers, flowery kebayas, and songkoks demonstrating against the formation of Malayan Union, the Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa campaign, the Nadrah case to cite a few.
Going back to the Yellow Demonstration, I was angry because I had to crawl through the jam from Kajang to Hulu Kelang in two hours, almost missing my maghrib. Even than I had to squirrel my way through various back lanes and alternative routes. But I wasn’t angry with the demonstrators but with the people who set up the roadblocks. Trust us, we are the experts you see… I believe, if they had allow these people to march, nothing untoward would happen. Just do not provoke them. These are not football hooligans from from two opposing teams. They are all from the same team. Just let them march to their hearts contents, they can march all the way to Timbuctoo if they want. But the police were ready with roadblocks, menacingly looking red chemicalised water trucks, FRU in combat uniforms – all these are riot inducing paraphernalia. I was also disappointed with the performance of our Information Minister who was interviewed live by Aljazeera. He could have fielded the questions calmly – like Dr M usually did, wittily pinning them down, but instead he chose to be panicky, combative and defensive and in the process rubbing off Pakistan and Myanmar. I think he should apologise to these two countries for dragging them into his arguments. So going back to my earlier point, the media was depriving the public of the real story, giving the impression that everything is hunky dory. Having said that, if you read the alternative media (read: the blogosphere news) you’ll get the impression of all doom and gloom as if Malaysia would be imploding in no time. So, whom to trust, the experts?
Mata Satu 