Kuasa, Krisis Dan Kewartawanan: Satu Kajian Kes Ke Atas Pelaporan Utusan Malaysia Mengenai Operasi Lalang 1987
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Date
2004-01
Authors
Ching Loo, Yeoh
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Abstract
This study looks at the power relationships between the press and those in government in
a crisis situation. More specifically, it looks at these relationships under the premiership
of Mahathir Mohammad, using coverage of the 1987 Operasi Lalang by Utusan
Malaysia as a case study.
The origins and implications of these relationships between the press and governments
have often been debated,especially by communication scholars, NGOs, the media, and
even governments. It has almost become a debate without end. However, what is clear,
certainly in the context of Malaysia, is that these relationships between the press and
government have wide-ranging and serious implications for the functions, roles, values
and structures of the press.
This study, attempts to understand these relationships, particularly those between
Utusan Malaysia and the political elites through an historical, political economic and
cultural analysis. It touches on the development of Utusan Malaysia under the
premiership of all four of Malaysia's past prime ministers, culminating in the
administration of Dr. Mahathir Mohammad.
This study begins with a critical analysis of Operasi Lalang, focusing on the chain of
events that led to the conflict and crisis, which concluded with the government launching
Operasi Lalang. Questions are raised about the validity of the arguments put across in
the government White Paper on Operasi Lalang. In particularly, this study questions the
official argument that Operasi Lalang - and the subsequent detention of more than 100
individuals under the Internal Security Act (ISA) - was a necessary response by the
government to threats posed by these individuals to national security.
Following this, the study outlines the major crises under the administration of Dr.
Mahathir and specifically compares and contrasts the crisis of 1987 and that of 1998. In
so doing, the study illustrates a trend in the way the administration handled such crises of
leadership at both the intra-elite level of the United Malays National Organisation
(UMNO) and the inter-elite level of the Barisan Nasional (BN). The trend or tendency
was for the elites to address - and attempt to overcome ~ these crises by resorting to the
politics of ethnicity/race by raising issues related to religion, culture, ethnicity and
educational rights. This was done through representations in the mainstream media, the
majority of which, including Utusan Malaysia, being under the economic control of the
ruling political parties.
In conclusion, this study contends that the press in Malaysia does not exist in a vacuum,
but is inextricably linked to the ruling elites. This, as this study attempts to show, is
especially true in moments of crisis, such as when there is political and social upheaval,
which threaten the interests and sovereignty/hegemony of the elites whose interests the
press represent. In sum, then, the basic conclusion of this study is that, irrespective of the
era of the ruling administration, power, crisis and the press are invariably inter-related.
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Keywords
Communication , Newspapers