“Please take note that we are not gathering at Dataran Merdeka to walk to the NPC.”
Benar Walk organisers on calling off the walk for press freedom.

Fellow friends who believe in a freer media, activists who have long fought against propagandic media, I urge you to, in times when lines are blurred, remember what you stand for.

Malaysia post March 8 is facing various contradictions as far as social change is concerned. Co-optation and accommodation of interests once strange to the powers that be now seem fashionable.

Have we truly won them over? Are they genuinely willing to allow greater civil freedom? Some say these arguments are stagnant, even cynical, remarks of those unable to “give and take” in what they call moments when change is realistic.

I think the road map to press freedom can ill afford more patronage from those who still actively seek to define agendas, barbwire the civil freedoms using terms like ‘responsibility’, or ultimately have more of themselves than the rakyat at heart.

The Benar Walk: Tidak Dibenarkan. (Disallowed)

And we’re still quite glad de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim will deliver a keynote on the occasion. I’m not suggesting the organisers didn’t fight for the Kebenaran to keep walking. I’m suggesting, nonetheless, co-optation and accommodation of civil interests on the part of the powers that be is more often than not reciprocal, with the people’s interest invariably accommodated to (crudely saying) the whims and fancies those wanting to retain power in the state.

Our Law Minister will probably criticise the Printing Presses and Publications Act. He has in the past proposed we do away with it and instead move towards self-regulation (it’s still about regulation). As if the media aren’t already self-censoring.

Will he this Sunday condemn political ownership of the media? Will he talk about the Official Secrets Act? Will he talk about RTM, Bernama, etc? Will it be another freedom-with-responsibility sermon? Will his government ever comprehend the need for a media that is responsible not to their arbitrary powers but to the public?

Wishing I could be there,
Konsyenz (A Voice Within)

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