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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Malaysian parties gear up for battle of the media
Rival parties: paper war ahead.
Realising that the media is a powerful tool, parties
make an early start in reshaping strategies to keep
the party faithful and win over the electorate
By BRENDAN PEREIRA
IN KUALA LUMPUR
ONE unmistakable lesson which has emerged from
Malaysia's hotly-contested general election two months
ago: the media is a powerful tool that cannot be
neglected.
The next round of polls may be five years down the
road but political parties are already drawing up and
reshaping their strategies to win over party faithful
and the electorate.
Early indications are that the opposition will rely
more and more on Internet newspapers to get their
views across in the country of 22 million, spread over
13 states, while the ruling Barisan Nasional will
depend on ink and paper.
Step One in Umno's strategy is to revive its party
newspaper, Merdeka, after a 13-year hiatus.
During post-mortem sessions following the election,
party members blamed the lack of information to
counter allegations of corruption by PAS as a reason
for Umno's dismal performance.
The unchallenged allegations published week after week
in Harakah -- the PAS newspaper with a circulation of
300,000 -- were said to be effective in turning some
Malays against the Mahathir administration.
While many mainstream newspapers in Malaysia are owned
by political parties in the ruling coalition, there is
a growing belief in the government that the daily
papers cannot be expected to function like party
mouthpieces. To do so would hurt their credibility and
circulation.
Enter the Umno newspaper. The paper was published in
the early 50s to promote independence from the
British, discontinued in 1969, revived in 1979 and
allowed to fade away in 1987.
Umno knows it will be preaching to the converted but
believes that it will be an important task. Results of
the election showed that some of the flock strayed and
followed the opposition.
Said Mr Zulkifli Alwi, Umno Youth's Exco member: "The
party newspaper must be seen as an additional effort
on the part of the leadership and the whole party to
explain its policies, programmes and issues."
In contrast, PAS is looking to project its image
beyond party circles.
It has applied to the Home Ministry for a licence to
publish a daily tabloid called Purnama or Full Moon.
While Harakah has done exceptionally well over the
past 12 months, there is a feeling that it is riding
on the Anwar Ibrahim sentiment. It also carries the
stigma of being a PAS mouthpiece -- a fact that makes
it unattractive to neutrals.
Purnama, on the other hand, will attempt to reach a
wider audience by championing "greater democracy" and
carrying articles on foreign news, sports and
entertainment.
"Halal entertainment," quipped Mr Zulkifli Sulong,
editor of Harakah.
With Harakah facing closure for allegedly carrying a
seditious report, PAS is pinning its hopes on Purnama.
If, as expected, the government does not give it a
licence to publish a daily newspaper, the Muslim party
will depend on the Internet version of Harakah.
Online publications fall through the cracks of
Malaysian laws governing newspapers and printing
presses. No annual permits are required and the
government has promised not to censor the Internet.
Still, Mr Zulkifli said it would be a while before an
online newspaper had the reach and credibility of hard
copy.
"People are not sure if the information on the
Internet is correct," he noted, adding that Harakah
online logs 28,000 hits a day.
Another online newspaper, Malaysiakini (Malaysia Now)
is doing better. Published in Malay and English, it
gets about 50,000 hits a day.
Mr Steven Gan, the editor, said that the paper was
politically neutral but conceded that it gave more
space to opposition politicians. "We try and get both
sides but it's difficult to get the government side."
The paper evolved out of an effort by the press
associations of Thailand, Indonesia and the
Philippines to promote media freedom.
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