Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has now achieved slightly more than a million hits in the first month of his blogging venture. A stunning achievement. (See here.)
But what is also noteworthy — and a reminder to us all — is that he now finds blogging a necessity in his effort to reach out to his constituency given that his access to the mainstream media, which he used to domesticate through various means when he was in power, has not been as easy as it used to be.
Unlike his anointed successor Abdullah, he has come to the conclusion that the mainstream media might become ‘irrelevant’ if they don’t reform themselves adequately. In short, Mahathir now grumbles about the state of the country’s media.
Mahathir should know better about the mainstream media and the present state of media freedom in the country because he was primarily responsible for the emasculation of the mainstream press (and other media) to the extent that concerned and curious Malaysians have to turn to alternative sources of information and news particularly in the Internet. This is largely the reason for the proliferation of websites and blogs in the country over the years especially since the Reformasi days that came about after Mahathir expelled Anwar Ibrahim from the government and Umno in 1998.
When press freedom is not institutionalised, whatever ‘openness’ that appears from time to time in the press often hinges on the discretion of the Home Minister and the government of the day. Put another way, such fluctuating ‘freedom’ discourages investigative journalism. If anything, it gives rise to self-censorship and even irresponsible and unethical journalism.
This is the media legacy that Mahathir handed over to the present Abdullah administration. As they say, you reap what you sow.
