The 9MP will inevitably be a casualty. But the spin, increasingly laboured, is put out by the government's public relations arm: newspapers, Bernama, radio and television. But the Malaysian has other sources of news that is contrary to what the government churns out.

Since the government insists that an event did not happen if it does not give the news, either through Bernama, the official news agency, or its public relations outlets, the official and mainstream publications, radio and television are forced to write 'fearlessly', if only to retain their readers and viewers. Nature abhors a vacuum. Other news comes in to fill it in real life. And that takes pride of place even in the official and mainstream media. This is so as they fight new wars on the successful past. Everything is spin that we do not often know what we read or hear. True, the alternate media can also be full of spin, but that often does not match the spin of the rulers who also embraced the Internet though bureaucratically. But this is only temporary. Once the dust settles down, the situation could change. Until then. the spin and what did not happen will form part of the armoury of those in power. They are in trouble when that spin collapses and there is nothing to take its place.

UMNO, in the National Front, rules the roost. The New Straits Times is owned by a party conglomerate, its editor is appointed by the Prime Minister. Its editor knows which side his bread is buttered, and acts accordingly. It reports fearlessly on countries and individuals who cannot fight back. It acts as a public relations arm of the government. It used to be the best-selling newspaper in the country but is now third, behind the free newspaper, The Sun. It used to sell more than 300,000 but can only manage about 120,00 now. The decline in leadership can be blamed on its political orientation slavishly with reporters not reporting what should be, and its recent editors, who are mediocrities selected so that the ruling party can be comfortable. It does not report opposition activities, except occasionly to show its "independence". Like all newspapers, its journalists do not usually write their reports until they have seen the sanitized Bernama version of the event. It does not often, like most newspapers, quote Bernama as the source, and the report would appear in other newspapers.

Pak Lah washes his hands when it is convenient. He said he did not know that his son-in-law's company was taken over by a government firm, Avenue Capital, which had RM3,000 million in cash, in a complicated series of moves that had the main shareholders controlling it. He told that he did not know about the transaction. A RM3,000 million in cash is depleted from government coffers, and lhe, who is also finance minister, did not know! His son-in-law did not tell him? His officials never told him? The former finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, had insisted that all payments, or projects RM20 million and more should come to him. But we are told RM3,000 million has been transferred to his son-in-law without his knowledge! But when he denied, a denial that was broadcast over the government media in great detail, Malaysians who are used to the government telling lies, believed the opposite. He issued the press statement, through Bernama, a fortnight after his involvement was known throughout the country. He still believes he can stop the flood when he feels like it. But Malaysians know the government never tells the truth. The former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was beaten to a pulp, by the Inspector-General of Police no less, while government spokesman said he was well treated. The police denied it had illtreated Chinese women tourists, but admitted that the woman in question who did the nude squat was Malay, not Chinese. In the meanwhile, a cabinet minister had gone to Beijing to apologise, two journalists had been forced to resign, a Chinese daily in danger of being suspended. But no one believes the official version, which often varies with the spokesman.

PAK LAH SAID HIS syle is different from Tun Mahathir's. There is no doubt about that. He said this in Bangkok, a statement meant for Malaysians. Tun Mahathir would have done that in office, but not before he had said it locally. Pak Lah is more interested, in his speeches and statements, in keeping the foreigner informed of his intentions, than Malaysians. Bernama, in carrying the report, gave it prominent on its web page, making it the top story of the day, in Malay and English. But the two men are as different as chalk and cheese. Tun Mahathir had asked to see Pak Lah, and as usual arrived early. But Pak Lah was still in his bed, though it was mid-morning. Tun Mahathir saw him two hours later. This would not have happened when he was prime minister. He was probably less than a week behind in his work. Normally he arrives in his office well before it is open, and catches up on his work while his staff has just left for the office. He attends to his work as prime minister, then stays behind cloistered with his work, takes it home what he cannot finish, which is often, and works at his papers or speeches late into the night. He gets up early, works again before he leaves for office. Compare that with Pak Lah, who is weeks behind his work normally.

All the newspapers, including The Sun, are appendages to commercial organisations. Those in power will not allow news to be reported as it happens. The government's version comes through Bernama, the national news agency. The newspapers carry these items, often without the source, but with their reporter's byline. There is therefore a sameness about what each newspaper carries.

The Malaysian cabinet instructed the home minister, Dato' Azmi Khaled, to explain the Malaysian position to China on November 30, but the Chinese government was not told beforehand. The Chinese ambassador in Malaysia, Mr Wang Chung, who is in the top rung of Chinese diplomats, went to Putrajaya on Tuesday (29 November) to say that the visit is off until the Malaysian government convinces China that this manhandling will not happen again, told what his government would do that day in Beijing. Dato' Azmi Khalid reacted by going on a tirade on newspapers carrying "negative stories". But he should know that megaphone diplomacy is out in a sennsitive matter as this. In that press conference, he admitted that some of the "negative stories" came from government departments. But local newspapers did not have to carry them; but the newspapers here would have taken the cue from Bernama. If they did not, the government press officers would harass them. The Malaysian government use the newspapers as its ragsheets. PAS is given short shrift in the newspapers in the byelection in Pengkalen Pasir, while the National Front is not. The deputy UMNO youth chief is shown painting a house in Pengkalen Pasir, to tell Malaysians it should vote, but he would disappear from the area should UMNO win or lose that election. But UMNO is busy in an opposition constituency before an election. That is of course no said.

The cabinet told her to 'face the music' in Parliament. She kept telling to all who would listen, especially the Bernama news agency, that she was on 'important' business overseas, that she was representing the country, and by inference Parliament could wait. But Parliament was also part of the nation, and an MP elected, as she is, has her first priority to attending its sessions. She took care of the Pak Lah cabinet by giving APs to members of it so that if she were investigated, so would they. Pak Lah and his advisers decided that Datin Rafidah should face Parliament on the AP issue, knowing fully well that the National Front had the majority in Parliament. The NF MPs were told to clear her. But the two MPs who voted against her is indicative of the problems within the Front. The government and cabinet cannot be made of the NF leaders, and once appointed, do as they like. Which is how the NF government and cabinet runs. Datin Seri Rafidah problem in Parliament, and her rantings afterwards, only highlighted this. Approved permits, contrary to what Datin Seri Rafidah now says, is given to 'important' people in the NF. It is not available to you and me. The APs are one way that 'us' and 'them' are kept apart in NF and its main party, UMNO.

The opposition is clue-less, and does not put BN through the hoops. The BN has handed it a political issue it could run with. It did not. Where was PAS and Keadilan when this broke out? When did they visit the family and protest this gross injustice to Ahmad Hafizal? The BN did. Bernama reported last night Hafizal's mother understands why her son is in jail, and calls on Malaysian youth to take her son's predicament to heart, and not skip national service. Another instance when the opposition snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. PAS, which is quite sensitive to issues like this, failed in its bailliwick. Why? There is not a beep from Parti Keadilan Rakyat. The DAP raised the broader issue of national service and its finances in parliament but little else. Malaysians who want a change to the BN are let down by an equally accident-prone opposition. When all is said and done, the Ahmad Hafizal affair forced both BN and opposition intto a corner, but while BN walked away from with some dignity, the opposition tries harder to remain where they are – in the corner.

THE DIRECTOR OF MILITARY INTELLIGENCE, Lieut.-Gen. Dato' Wan Abu Bakar omar, proved by his own words why he should be removed forthwith. In an irrelevant television and print interview with Bernama yesterday (19 April 2005), broadcast on all TV channels and reported in the newspapers today, he proved why military intelligence, at least in Malaysia, is an oxymoron. He ignored totally Singapore's breach of our national security, to which the armed forces, the police forces, the intelligence agencies, the prime minister and deputy prime minister, were complicit. Instead, he attempts to divert attention to an irrelevant operational episode in the unchartered waters in the Sulewesi Sea when a Malaysian and Indonesian warship grazed each other.

In the end, the archeological and historical excavations could well be what is claimed. If it is above board, why is the Star the only newspaper with access to the information? Are tycoons from its ultimate parent, the BN component party, MCA, who in the end the beneficiaries of this rich timber haul? Even Bernama, the official news agency who would be privy to this information can only comment and report from the periphery. The New Straits Times tries to debunk it in the spirit of sour grapes over what is, if true, a significant archeological find. Why?

The women, family and community development minister, Datin Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, contradicts him and insists aid to tsunami victims has been disbursed, though she does not explain how or when, nor how could she when the paperwork is not ready. She hands over RM12.95 million to Indonesia, while aid awaits a cabinet minister and a photo opportunity in Malaysia. Bernama and Malaysia's mainstream media has correspondents in Bandar Aceh and Colombo, but not in Kuala Muda, Langkawi and Penang, to record the horrors and destruction. UMNO Youth and Bakti, the cabinet wives' aid group, rush aid to Sri Lanka and Acheh but no sign of them in Langkawi. The collection of aid is privatised, with no central control so that one does not know if the aid goes to private pockets of to those who need it.

The 1,800 page ISG report threw names about as confetti at a wedding. Half a dozen were Malaysia individuals and companies. This challenged the underlying theme of his speech last week. Almost everyone named kept a studied silence or denied it. Pak Lah, from Hanoi, denied it. But denial showed he does not practice what he said at the KLSTI dinner. "I have no deal or share in the matter," he said, "I don't know how my name was implicated." He is named as the beneficiary of special oil vouchers worth 1,949,000 barrels of oil, which could sold at a profit of US$1.3 million (about RM5.2 million), through a company called Tradeyear. He says it is bosh. Let us accept this for a moment. But he also said, according to Bernama from Hanoi, that "some Malaysian business men interested in the (oil-for-food) programme had asked me to write letters to the former Iraqi government supporting their bids for roles in the programme. I did not know what happened to their bids after that."

The three mainstream English-language newspapers in the Klang Valley are strong on the community, but not on the communitarian, role. In the short term, this would attract advertisers and be a corporate dream – one managing director of a mainstream newspaper takes home RM6 million a year – but are not newspapers of record or substance. But in the end it would pay for shortchanging the reader. The NST and the Star have lost readers because of this. In fact, the NST is boycotted in parts of the east coast states of Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan, and after the fallout between UMNO and its then deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, in 1998, around the country. The Star has lost readers to the Sun for its slanted coverage of MCA politics, wherein only the party president's view is important. The Sun, making no pretense of it, presents a bare-bones news coverage from Bernama, backed with solid commentaries that gives it a communitarian heft not seen in its rivals. All are now caught in a conundrum: Anwar should be banned from the newspapers, so the diktat, but he sells newspapers; it is a fact that when he is in the news, newspaper sales rise. But he is an UMNO pariah, so he must be excluded. So those who want news of him must seek elsewhere, and many do.

When Dato' Seri Anwar left for the airport, the official downgrading had begun. The official media said about 200 well-wishers saw him off at the Kuala Lumpur international airport. One Malay newspaper said it was 5,000, another 10,000. By all accounts about 8,000 were there. None mentioned that about cars, converging from three directions, left to receive him at the airport, on occasion rumbustious shouts of "Reformasi!" could be heard. Malaysian reporters at the airport did not think it newsworthy to report it. It is the habit of Malaysian mainstream newspapers to depend on Bernama if facts become inconvenient to the government's composure. And Bernama, as we all know, is the official voice. What it reports, and on occasion not to print what it reports, is held in high esteem by editors who would not trust their reporters if their reports challenged Bernama's. But this should not bother Dato' Seri Anwar as it does not the Opposition. They have their own voice in the Internet, which in recent years have reported on politics in a way that editors in the mainstream undergo rigor mortis at least once every day in office. With Dato' Seri Anwar on the loose, make that twice or thrice daily. Especially when he returns to active political life.

The Bernama news agency is the standard the government would like it to follow. Independent inquiry or reports are discouraged. Reporters cover the blase and the mundane, often end up rewriting the Bernama reports.

Something is brewing. After pages of nothing but UMNO nomination news, the mainstream newspapers do not mention it anymore. It does appear there is a boycott, whether it is official or not does not matter; no attempt is now made to report on the run-up to the UMNO general assembly next month. Suddenly, the readers are left in the dark about the UMNO general elections. Part of it is of course the "dumbing down" of news in the New Straits Times and the Star, both of which seems to have taken a leaf from the Sun, which relies on Bernama news for its news, and then makes sure it is kept at that level. (But it does not provide what the Sun does best: articles and commentaries that give that newspaper its unique voice.)

THE SUN, By ANY definition, is the best newspaper today in Malaysia; not for its news coverage, which is largely from the official Bernama news agency, but for its columns, which gives it its voice. That it is a tabloid is not why.

When Singapore banned Malaysian chickens, after avian influenza was found in chickens in Kelantan, the prime minister's department told Bernama to issue a press advisory in its name not to report it, only to insist later, it did not. Bernama apologised. But not after all newspapers had written about it.

This did not stop Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah from seeking to be UMNO president. The mainstream media and the official Bernama news agency, rushed in to paint him as yesterday's man, questioned his motives and his relevance in today's politics. It made him more determined and, frighteningly for Pak Lah and his camp followers, brings him more support than ever. He has yet to announce his candidacy. The Malay cultural rules of engagement insist he must at all times be a reluctant candidate, and confirms it only when he cannot hold out any longer. There was never any doubt he would not. In one sense, it is timing. He is expected to make an "important" announcement in Kota Bharu in the next few days.

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