Sholto Byrnes is a commentator and analyst with more than 20 years’ experience in journalism. Byrnes speaks to NSTP on the foreign media’s coverage of Malaysian politics:
Question: Do you think the foreign media is fair in its coverage of Malaysian politics?
Answer: I speak as someone who was a full-time journalist in England for 20 years.
When they (foreign media) are covering a country like Malaysia, there are probably very few people on the staff who really know very much about the country, and they are not going to write about the country all the time either.
So, when something comes up — that is big enough to make it to the foreign pages — there is often a black-and-white way of looking at the country.
So, the paradigm was set in Malaysia in 1998 and 2000 (following Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s ouster from the cabinet).
The western media then disapproved of the approach by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. So, he, the Barisan Nasional, became the bad guys. They saw Anwar as a liberal reformist.
There are very few western journalists who said, okay, so if I’m a liberal reformer, what about his background as an Islamist, or his role in removing English from the education system?
And I think in the years since then, this is where the western media start when they look at Malaysia. It is not a level playing field.
Q: What is among their common point criticisms?
A: Just briefly (an example) on 1Malaysia People’s Aid or BR1M. It is hypocritical for other countries to criticise BR1M, especially European countries. We didn’t call it BR1M, but by other names, such as unemployment benefit and housing benefit.
These were the things that everyone took for granted.On BR1M particularly, we believe in the idea of a welfare state. There are some people who, through no fault of their own, (are suffering because they are) may be less fortunate or had lost a job.
Hence, it is incumbent upon the state to help them. I think for anyone to describe BR1M as bribery is really missing the point.
They think of every way to put the government in a bad light.
So, that is what you are dealing with to begin with. And when you are talking about the coverage of this election, for example, they are going to be coming from a perspective that says “we do not think it is fair”.
The opposition has been reaching out to the western media, and a lot of them will just accept whatever they (the opposition) say without question.
There have been many important achievements under Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s government, but they go underreported or are dismissed by the international media because of their inherent bias against BN, which dates back to the jailing of Anwar in 2000.
Q: Without any form of checks and balances?
A: And also, without checking whether the information they have been given is true.
I’ll give you one example. Dr Mahathir has been fond of saying again and again that Malaysia has become one of the top 10 corrupt countries in the world.
Now, there’s actually no basis for saying this. In fact, there is no such list. He has nothing to back up his claims.
I mean, I really like to see some evidence to this, but he keeps saying it as if it is true. Dr Mahathir was interviewed by The Guardian recently. He had mentioned the same thing during the interview, but it was not challenged by the journalist.
There are many people here, who believed it or otherwise, but it is not true at all.
Something that worries me about this election is that there has been a lot of propaganda.
So, he (Dr Mahathir) either knows he is telling a lie or he does not know it. I am not sure which is more worrying for someone who has been put up as a prime ministerial candidate.
Another example is 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). We know that opposition has been going around saying people have to pay for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to replace the monies lost in 1MDB.
We know that is not true. The GST is to cushion the impact of the fall in oil prices. The vast majority of countries in the world have something like that.
Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know, the government had only put RM1 million in 1MDB.
It is bad for politics in general because we cannot agree on common facts. If I say to you, look, that’s a chair and you say, no, it is a television. Now how can we have a discussion?
Q: How long has this perception of Malaysia been ongoing?
A: When Dr Mahathir gave his speech at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in 2003, I had a piece about him
in the Spectator weekly magazine
in the United Kingdom. Its editor at that time, Boris Johnson,
who is now the UK foreign secretary, had told me to write the article.
It was a piece that defended him (Dr Mahathir) because he came in for a lot of criticism for what he had said about Jews. We were criticised and our associate editor had threatened to resign over the piece.
They have had distorted views (on Malaysia). And I’d say there are also things that they just get wrong.
Q: Is there a decline in standards of journalism?
A: I’m afraid when it comes to international coverage, there is a little bit of that.
What surprises me is how little credence that has been given to the statement by the Saudi minister concerning the donation given to Najib.
Anybody who is familiar with the Gulf — I spent a long time living in the Middle East — knows that the government gives assistance to their friends, but they never wanted to talk about it because they are discreet.
Another example is that the recent matters concerning the United States’ Department of Justice.
You can correct me if I’ve got this wrong, but as far as I know there is no criminal investigation. They are just allegations
that haven’t been proven in court.
I think it is worth remembering that it was very, very unusual too for them to come up with such allegations. And the initial press conference they did?
That was a political thing to do and you’d have to question why they did that.