The Media, Harakah and KDN

On 24 June 08 Bernama reported that For the first time in Parliament's history, reporters were barred from the Parliament lobby Tuesday. To counter the move, members of the media showed their solidarity by boycotting all press conferences held at Parliament, include those by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. The media personnel took such a bold step to express their unhappiness at the "unfriendly ruling" by Parliament's management.

After failing to get a satisfactory explanation from the Speaker (Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia) , the Parliament’s management committee and the minister responsible for giving the instruction, Datuk Nazri Aziz during the lunch break. The BN-BCC acted to remove the barriers place to bar the media personnel. This resulted in Datuk Nazri calling them “kids and gangsters”. Not happy with the incident, the BN-BCC will discuss on Monday, what action is to taken against Datuk Nazri, which to them is “very unbecoming”.

Chedet.com was quick to make this comments : Having muzzled their own supporters, BN is now trying to prevent the Press from being present in Parliament to hear debates and meet MPs. Why BN should bother doing this is a mystery. Already the press is being directed by a "Supremo" on what to report and how to report it.

Maybe it is because among the pressmen there were bloggers. The Supremo is still unable to direct the bloggers on what they should say and how they should say it.

Read the comments from TG Dato’ Nik Aziz , Harakah was denied to the public and reduced their production to once every two weeks after 1999 UMNO poor election showing. Wasn’t it our very Tun Dr Mahathir who was the “Supremo” Not only Harakah even Cresent International was also banned in Malaysia, Crescent International was an equivalent of Democracy.org or Counterpunch or Information Clearing House for the Muslims. Ever wonder who started this Culture in UMNO?

To prove the gravity of lack of freedom of expression under the former prime minster, the acronym for UMNO baru was said to be Under Mahathir No Opposition. This interpretation was given to UMNO baru by UMNO members themselves. Today Tun Dr Mahathir is no longer in UMNO, he had resigned as a member of UMNO, so the UMNO members gave him another intepretation of an acronym MAHATHIR - which means Must Always Hentam Abdullah Till He Is Removed.

On 24 June 2008 it was reported that Dato’ Kamarudin Jaafar had written a letter of thanks to the Home Minister Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar for approving or issuing KDN to Harakah allowing it to be published 2 times a week (8 times a month). It was stated whether the circulation will be limted to members of PAS or Harakah will be allowed to be sold to the public. TG Dato’ Nik Aziz voiced out that it is high time for Harakah to be allowed to be published daily. From TG Dato’ Nik Aziz comments it appears that the KDN allows Harakah to be circulated to the public.