I have to hand it to Barisan Nasional. They are really deviously smart!
During the bloody Batu Buruk incident, the authorities imposed a total media clampdown or media blackout. Cameras and videocams that belong to journalists at the scene of the fracas were confiscated and the Malaysian public was served with dubious photos (referring to that flag-burning photos) splashed all over our mainstream newspapers and television channels.
In the recent December 11th incident over at Parliament however, the authorities didn’t do such thing. There was no confiscation of cameras or videocams at all. Surprisingly the authorities were quite friendly with journalists. We even have one police officer giving journalist a crash course in ‘road safety’! What the heck!?
We should ask ourselves, why didn’t they do the same thing for the event at Parliament like what they have done over at Batu Buruk?
I think the answer is quite simple. The government wants journalists to cover the December 11th incident. Their long term target is not BERSIH or our political opposition parties but the wide Malaysian public. The government is counting on journalists to deliver subtle but harsh reminders (Don’t mess around with BN!) to ordinary Malaysians. Let’s just consider it as a mass intimidation attempt by the government. They want to drive fears to the hearts of Malaysians. :-(
The bad news is that their devious plan seems to be working at the moment! I can see that some Malaysians are pretty scared of discussing current issues such as those brought forward by BERSIH in the open. Nobody dares to discuss such issues in ‘Mamak’ stalls and Indian restaurants any longer.
Very smart, Barisan Nasional!
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