CONTENTS ANALYSIS ON 'BISIK-BISIK AWANG SELAMAT'

FROM 1ST MARCH – 31ST MARCH 2010

Introduction

Content analysis is a popular technique in research methodology particularly in analyzing a pertinent issue and pattern in both the electronic or non-electronic mass media. For this assignment, the group decided to analyse the ‘Awang Selamat’ column in Utusan Malaysia. Utusan Malaysia is a Malay medium newspaper in Malaysia and is reputed to be a ‘pro-government’ entity. It has constantly been the best selling local Malay daily and is a favoured newspaper amongst the general Malay population in Malaysia.

It is normal for any local daily to have its editorial column which allows the paper to make significant comments on a myriad of issues that will be of much interest to its readers. The Awang Selamat column is the editorial voice of Utusan Malaysia and is considered to be the government parties’ mouthpiece. This section is most popular as it touches on contemporary and sensitive issues in a provocative manner. The articles are always controversial, daring and thought provoking. Hence, it will invite reciprocal remarks not only from its readers but also from many other individuals attracted to its statements and views.

Due to its provocative and often debatable statements which have been a hallmark of the Awang Selamat column, it has attracted many criticisms from all quarters of the Malaysian society. Some accusations include that Awang Selamat is anti-Islam and if this anonymous writer is indeed a Muslim, considered an apostate. Opposition parties have labeled this column as pro-government. There have even been demonstrations and fiery debates in parliament as a result of the Awang Selamat column.

The content analysis for this study will look into the ‘Bisik-Bisik Awang Selamat’ column retrieved from the whole month of March, 2010 of Utusan Malaysia. See Appendix A. The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the various categories of issues covered in this column. It will also identify the public feedback and accusations towards this editorial and further substantiate the claims. Finally this study will analyse the trends and patterns which the column has addressed.


THE ACCUSATIONS/ RESEARCH QUESTION

It has become almost a constant occurrence where Awang Selamat will receive critical comments from the public on his articles. The following accusations were abstracted from the mass media and taken in retrospect for this study. The comments had even accused Awang Selamat as a traitor or a source of ethnic conflict. Being a seasoned writer, Awang Selamat usually take these critics in his stride. Those who hurl the accusations range from the government sector, opposition parties as well as all fabric of society regardless of their race. Those who have criticized are mainly not happy with the statements, which touched on sensitive issues such as ethnic and religious issues. There are also police reports lodged again Awang Selamat. See Appendix B. The accusations can be divided into four categories as follows:

Category 1: Awang Selamat accused of being a government spokesman. Any negative issues on the government would be turned into a favourable situation. This in turn portrays the government as fair and just with the people’s interest at heart.

Category 2: Awang Selamat the racist who practice biasness towards the Malays as the main ethnic group in the country. Awang Selamat will always write an article which touch on sensitive racial issues. Although he has also criticize the Malays occasionally, the other ethnic groups are not convinced of his impartiality when dealing with racial issues.

Category 3: On social aspects, Awang Selamat again is accused as being pro-government. He is deemed synonymous with the government’s overall ability to deal fairly with social issues despite its shortcomings.

Category 4: On religious aspects, Awang Selamat is accused as being an apostate. This is related to the majority of his statements which are against Islamic beliefs. The statements and views are often radical in nature and supporting a more liberal approach.

Based on the above categories, only the accusations on category 1(pro-government) and 3 (social) will be analysed in this paper. This is because the other categories of being a racist (category 2) and religious biasness (category 4) were not covered in the Awang Selamat articles for the month of March 2010 which is the main study of this paper. The two main accusations which formed research questions for this study are as follows:

1. Are there any Awang Selamat articles being biased towards the government and being deemed as one of the government’s approach to deliver their propaganda?

2. On social aspects, Is it true that Awang Selamat articles are always pro-government and trying to cover up any government deficiencies and weaknesses with regards to social issues?


ARTICLES SUMMARY

Category of Issues. For the month of March 2010, there are 23 articles only. For unknown reasons, Awang Selamat did not produce his article for 8 days (not in sequence - 4, 5, 6, 7, 17, 18, 21, and 28 March 2010). In all, 10 articles focused on political issues, eight of them are deemed to be on the government side, one article is on the opposition party and one article is about foreign political issues. There are eight articles, which argued on social issues in the country. The remaining five articles are on economic issues. See Appendix C.

In short, for the month of March 2010, Awang Selamat articles focused 44 percent on political issues, 35 percent on social issues and 22 percent on economic issues. Refer to Chart 1. From the 23 articles, 16 of them are delivered in a ‘positive’ tone, 4 articles in a ‘negative’ tone and 3 articles in a ‘neutral’ setting.


Pro-Government or Non-Government. In the political, economic and social (23 articles) issues, there is only one article (P10) on the opposition party and one article on foreign political issues (P 9). In aspects of social and economy, the articles are mainly pro-government. As shown in Chart 2. However, even though the main theme of article ‘P 10’ is about the opposition party, Awang Selamat has made it to be pro-government with underlying tones condemning the opposition.

Chart 2: Pro-Government, Non-Government and Neutral issues

For the purpose of analysis, the articles are given codes according to themes represented. The code for economic issues is ‘E’, political issues is ‘P’ and Social issues is ‘S’. The code numbers for each article is according to date. For example, issue on politics on 13 March 2010, would be described as ‘P13’. Similarly, the Editor in the following analysis refers to Awang Selamat.


ANALYSIS

Articles on Political Issues (P8, P9, P10, P13, P16, P19, P23, P25, P29 and P30).

P8 - MCA Elections. The 54th General Assembly Meeting by the MCA was carried out on 7 Mar 2010. The turn out was not encouraging enough. On 28 Mar 2010 will be the new election of the MCA leadership. Hopefully, with that election, the new line up will be elected, and the internal problems will be solved. Then MCA can concentrate and regain the support from the Chinese community towards the next general election in 2013. MCA can also be together with the rest of the coalition parties in the National Front to support the theme of 1 Malaysia which will be beneficial to all citizens of Malaysia.

P9 - Thailand Website Issue. The Editor expressed his views about the action taken by the Thailand Government on the irresponsible website being used by the Thailand Opposition Parties to stir the emotions of their supporters against the Thai Government. This website was being used to disseminate lies and incorrect information to the citizens about the Thai government. This created instability to the security of Thailand. The blockage of the website was also being carried out in China and Arab Saudi when faced with a similar problem. In Malaysia though, no such action had been done when faced with this problem. When a website, blog and portal had defame the government, the government do not take any action about it. The Editor requested that the government should be serious about it and recommend to take drastic action to counter the in irresponsible blogger, website and portal. If the government can react towards the mainstream media, why not on the electronic media? Endorsement to the new law is appropriate to counter this problem.

P10 - Statement by the Mufti of Perak. The Surya Ulama PAS Council, from the Opposition Party claimed that they were the ones who made the effort on the implementation of the Perak State Coalition Government between the National Front and the Opposition after the result of the 2008 general election. The idea came from the Mufti of Perak, Tan Sri Harussani Hassan. The argument made by PAS is that the mediator, the Mufti of Perak does not represent any political party. The editor commented that UMNO had placed the Mufti of Perak as the representative from the government and should be respected by both parties. By doing so, UMNO espoused that religion is above all compared to politics. The question being forwarded to PAS was that religion is the goal that PAS was fighting for, but instead they refused to accept this idea when it does not benefit them. This reflected that PAS is not consistent and sincere to their goal and vision to be a Muslim State.

P13 - PM Visit UKM. Editor commented on the unofficial visit by the Premier Dato’ Sri Najib to UKM. Dato Najib stated that the visit was not an official or formal visit but the objective is to enhance the personal relationship between the university and the Premier himself. The editor stated this is history that the Premier created because no prime minister before him visited the university. The best session was that, the Primer organized an Open Dialogue where the students and him had a good interaction. There were many issues brought up to his knowledge as the Premier. This was seen as a noble effort by the premier to get up close and personal to the younger intellectuals of the nation.

P16 – The Royal Address. The Editor commented that he was impressed with the advice from His Majesty the King to all MPs. His Majesty expressed his displeasure regarding the behavior of the MPs during parliamentary sessions. The behavior of some such as the language used and the body language reflects the immaturity of the MP themselves. The public can judge their antics because it was broadcasted live from the parliament. This will give the negative impact to the Nation. No doubt, the MP has immunity but that cannot be the excuse for their misbehaviour. Even worse, during some sessions, school children were also present and thus were able to see this shameful behaviour.

P19 - Anwar as PM?. Former PKR MP Zahrain Mohamed Hashim told the House that Dato’ Seri Anwar had ambitions to become the Premier on 16 Sept 2008. Anwar was alleged to have stated that he will be sworn as the Premier in front of His Majesty The King on that day. Unfortunately, those were all speculations created by Anwar to his supporters. Zahrain accused Anwar as a great liar and not an honest person. Zahrain was seen as the editor of someone scorned by Anwar and had his own agenda to discredit Anwar which is normal in politics.

P23 - Issues on 1Malaysia. The editor covered Opposition leader, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim who made a startling accusation that the concept 1Malaysia was a copyright from the concept of One Israel and is a great sin to the nation as a Muslim country. The Editor commented that the leadership from the opposition party applied dirty strategy to the National Front Party. He did that for his own personnel agenda to achieve his political goal to govern this country.

P25 - Local Authority Election. The Editor commented that the Opposition Party PKR does not understand and know how to manage a State. The opposition party would like to organize the Municipal election in the state of Selangor and Penang. The lack of understanding of the State Constitution makes the opposition leadership promises to their supporters that they will change the Municipal members by doing the re-election when they are in power. This is in contradiction to the legality of the state constitution.

P29 - MCA New Lineup. The editor noted the new MCA leadership Dato’ Seri Chua Soi Lek and his lineup for their win in the party election. The message from the supporters to the new lineup of leadership is to work hard for the Chinese community in order to regain the supporters’ support and not to be only as a passenger in the coalition party. The message also indicated that the Chinese community wants to see that the MCA party work side by side with the other coalition parties in the National Front towards the next election in 2013.

P30 - PKR Issues. Declaration from the former opposition coalition party PKR, Mr Wee Choo Keong during the parliamentary session. He said that the current opposition party member created lies to the supporters such as creating false copies of photographs on the leadership of the country. He said the ‘little Napoleons’ in PKR can afford to organize such immoral actions just to fulfill their political objectives to insult the political masters from the National Front Party. The MP of Kulim, Zuklifli Noordin also made a statement that the PKR plan to disseminate false allegation about the MPs from the national Front party. The editor commented that this should not be happening in the sessions in Parliament because the truth should prevail for the betterment of the citizens and not spreading lies to confuse the citizens.


Articles on Economic Issues (E3, E14, E24, E26, E27)

Generally, there are articles written on this issue namely; E3 issue on fishery, E14, E24 and E27 illegal immigrants and foreign workers and E26 Issue on credit card usage. Based on the articles the government is quite concerned in the welfare of the people. Nevertheless, the government efforts would not be successful without the cooperation from the people themselves.

E 3 - Insulation Fish Boxes. The first article it relates to fishery issues. This is regarding the use of fish boxes with chips. The chips will indicate what is the content of the box, and date of packaging including the manufacturer. The information provided will assist the authority to identify the level of freshness thus it indicated the concern of the government toward its people’s health. It meant that only fresh food is imported and supplied to the people. The government could immediately respond to any complaints and with that information the culprits can be brought to justice.

E14, E24 and E27 - Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants. There are three articles addressing these “old issues”. The issues become very critical with regards to the long term negative implications such as the increment of criminal and social problems involving foreign workers. Other issues include spreading of diseases, using subsidized facilities which are meant for citizens, reducing the job opportunities for the locals and the increase in government budget to finance the enforcement agencies to curb the illegal immigrants. There is no doubt that the government need to bring in foreign workers especially in certain sectors where the locals are unable to subscribe to the jobs. However, the over-reliance of foreign workers either through legal or illegal means is the main issue. Thus it becomes a social burden. This issue forced the government to spend money. Even though the government had taken necessary action to reduce the over-reliance on foreign workers and more stringent enforcement should be in place, it seems that this problem is status quo. As highlighted by the editor, as long as the “pull and push” factor is available, then there is no way the problem can be solved. Lastly, the enforcement itself must really be focused and should not be compromised.

E26 – Credit Card Usage. The editor stated the government concerns about the increasing of debt because of the uncontrolled usage of credit cards. This situation will put Malaysians in difficult situations where they cannot repay the loan. It will then create more ...

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