Casualties of the campaign
Pakatan Harapan now flat out with media propaganda and shutting up critics
Tan Sri Vincent Tan criminalizing defamation to stop critics of the Selangor government?
With only three more days of the state election campaigns to go, its very quickly becoming evident there are enormous casualties that must be borne after the election is completed.
With Anwar Ibrahim fiercely campaigning around the six states, part of the responsibility for the results must be attributed to him. A good result (and that has to be defined) will put Anwar in a very positive light, particularly, if the vote improves from GE15. However, if the vote is poor for Pakatan, it will be another thread in Anwar’s legitimacy unravelled. There is a chance Anwar could appear to become a lame duck prime minister, if PH-BN doesn’t do too well.
Maybe it would have been better if Anwar, played his role more in the background to prevent slung mud sticking to him.
Damage to the media
Over the last few weeks, news portals have been posting more favourable stories about Pakatan. Its also become very evident which reporters, columnists, and other writers have shown their bias.
There are news portals that are pro-Pakatan. Most people know and accept this. However, a number of news portals that have claimed to be independent, have actually been partisan. Some have that editorial line, some want to please the government, and some are scared to be critical.
There have been a number of extra-judicial censoring attacks made on TV, bloggers and news portals. UtusanTV, Malaysia Now, and Malaysia Today have all been periodically blocked over the last couple of weeks.
This has turned around 180 degrees from the days when Pakatan Harapan was denied access to government media, where reports about Pakatan were unflattering, and twisted. The Madani government has gone back to the days of the Najib Razak government when online news portals and bloggers seen to be supporting the opposition were blocked. The MCMC has become weaponized as a tool of the government against those who are critical of it.
Many online news portals and journalists have just been producing propaganda in the weeks before the elections. After these state elections, Malaysians will need to think about the biases they saw during the campaign, and this will affect the legitimacy of a number of news portals and journalists.
Weaponizing criminal defamation by cronies to the government
Over the last few months, we have seen GLCs take legal action against critics of the government to stop questions being asked about projects that lack transparency.
https://murrayhunter.substack.com/p/in-selangor-legitimate-questions
Now a new low has been achieved. Tan Sri Vincent Tan announced to the media that he is working with the police to bring criminal defamation charges against a number of bloggers for daring to ask questions about the Selangor Maritime Gateway agreement, under Section 499 of the Penal Code.
Vincent Tan has broken the law himself if he has falsely threatened to make a police report for the purposes of defamation. Claiming to make a police report when none was made is an offence.
The Tan Sri has used the media to portray people asking legitimate questions as criminals. This is defamation, as it is slandering the names to anyone who dares to ask for transparency.
It is understood some bloggers are in the process of making counter police reports against the Tan Sri. The Tan Sri has entered the political campaign in a partisan manner.
In Malaysia today, anyone who questions government transparency is publicly portrayed as a criminal.
We also see an ugly new nexus of corporations-government-police to attack anyone critical of what they do.
This is not a healthy trend for Malaysia to follow.
Madani trashed for an election
Finally, when the Madani agenda was prematurely released to the public late last month, it looked more like a mini-budget, than a bright new economic blueprint for Malaysia. It’s a real pity the whole Madani concept was scuttled for the election.
Its going to be very difficult to raise the Madani concept from the mud of the campaign after the election.
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There is no mention of the alleged billions of ringgits worth of tin ore, amang, rare earths, rocks and sand ( for Singapore ) in the alleged Selangor and Berjaya Agreement. The wealth is the nub in the 25 miles Sungai Klang Riverbed ! This huge wealth legally belongs to the Rakyat of Selangor which should be safe-guarded and protected in the National Interest from theft in broad daylight !
There you go, every crony and his dog must have a say... It's the turn of the thick-skinned ugly face with the stuck-on bunch of hair under the nose...
The Roman empire, and the Greek one before that, collapsed because the oligarchs overstretched themselves involving and interfering in too much in the workings of the gomens, they exercised too much of their power for their own good. Plato and the bunch of Greek and Roman scribes recorded as much, in recent history Toynbee (not the Blairite daughter) said as much...
Any power in the hands of the likes of our moneyed men, cronies, bagboys is always bad news, especially those from among the poorly read, unread among our rich balls carriers minted barely a few decades ago. Most hadn't even the time to learn to be just a little bit sophisticated in style and how they carry themselves.
If you take a look at Old Vince beyond his out of place moustache, you find him a horror story in dress sense. Money alone does not give a man class, Vince would look more the part if he appears in the parting of a jungle undergrowth, a fighting cockerel under his arm. He did surface in a nondescript little town and the rest is history...
Suffice to say, cronies and bagboys should not be of much intelligence, if so he'd end up owning his master. Can you imagine some Macaivillain like Mahathir tolerating someone he can't control?
Anyway, Inspector Clousseau aside, all cronies, bagboys, balls carriers can and will always suck up to the next master... But Anwar had better give up politics, call it a day. In the event that he "has the numbers", wins the election it's best he throw in the sarong. If Anwar "wins", the coming months will see plenty of heavy duty shiite in the world economy he can't handle.
Apart from his glibtok, koktok, bluff and bullsh*t Anwar hardly understand economics. It is best for an entity with hardly any substance to sneak away before the going gets worse. Anwar without being a sitting duck and not just lame duck should give up and go while the going is still less problematic. When the world economy gets worse and the brown stuff hits the fan, it will be an impossible job to extricate the country from the big mess. Anwar is done for, he should make a run for it.