Wavelength: Government acted with impressive resolve
John Teo
February 12, 2006
New Straits Times

Feb 12 SO it came as a storm upon placid Sarawak one normal, uneventful weekend, captured by that now most ironic of headlines about a controversy originating in snow-bound Scandinavia not having much impact on the tropical shores of Borneo.

The story and the offending caricatures were buried deep in the inside pages of the Sarawak Tribune, which dubbed itself as Sarawak’s oldest established newspaper and where this columnist now recalls with a sense of nostalgia having cut his teeth in the early 1980s.

The line taken by the Tribune, as the people of Sarawak all know the newspaper, was that it was an honest oversight and therefore utterly credible.

Who would have guessed that trouble brewing in faraway places, aided by previously unheard of instant image-transmitting technology, would land with such a devastating impact on many a Sarawak breakfast table?

But while such a devastation visited upon the Tribune may well have been the result of an oversight, it was nevertheless a grievous mistake for which this most pro-establishment of newspapers must expect to pay.

This is because our vibrant economically-robust nation is still socially exceedingly fragile.

Far too few Malaysians fully appreciate this inescapable fact today, even in the face of disturbing social volcanoes erupting in less fragile developed countries far less multi-cultural than our own.

Our exemplary social peace, of course, does not come free. It comes as a result of an exquisitely balanced compromise that takes into account the minefield of sensitivities that is our heterogeneous population.

This does not make for the most exciting social model for others to follow but we have to find one that suits our own peculiar circumstances.

And as others learn to their great cost that a licentious dependence on all manner of "freedoms" is hardly any panacea — be it in the economic or social realm — what works for Malaysia will come in for closer, hopefully more favourable, scrutiny.

Which is why, regrettably, I have to agree that the Tribune could not possibly walk away from this unfortunate episode — however inadvertently it originated — scot-free.

It needed to pay a sufficiently and unambiguously high price, if only so that the proper boundaries of where freedom ends and social responsibility kicks in are clearly delineated and reinforced in this country.

While there can be no grey areas as far as Press freedom and its concomitant responsibility go, as a country that takes its commitment to freedom of expression seriously, Malaysia needs to find a better way towards policing Press conduct than through the heavy hand of executive fiat.

Any self-respecting Press must first be allowed the opportunity to regulate itself. This is so that public concerns about possible abuse by the executive trying to muzzle the Press are assuaged.

We have been lucky that government actions against the Press over the years have, by and large, been to serve the larger interests of social peace. Subsequent amelioration of tensions meant it was unnecessary for the Government to apologise.

However, we cannot assume we will forever be so lucky. That said, when speed was of the essence to avert further injurious fallout, as the Tribune case could otherwise have potentially precipitated, the Government acted with impressive dispatch and resolve.

This is something the Press or any regulatory body may have struggled to achieve.

When nothing short of the country’s continued peace is involved, the people may need to find another acceptable equilibrium as to the proper limits of government action on Press matters.

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Sunday/Columns/20060212081406/Article/index_html