ntv7

To <sangkancil@malaysia.net>
From "Shaike" <shaike@tm.net.my>
Date Mon, 23 Nov 1998 23:08:09 +0800

------------------------------------------------

Dear All,

For those who had missed tonights Dateline over NTV7 you missed one hell of a funny show.
The forum consisted of one En Adi Satria from UM student affairs, IIU Student Council Leader En Nazim and none other than Dato Ibrahim Ali.

The topic revolves around University students and politics.
Here are some highlights from the discussion

The talking point was the College and Universities Act which prevents students from actively participating in politics, the point being made by Nazim and Adi was
that the relevant provisions was too subjective and ambigous, then
Christine posed this question to Ibrahim whether the said provisions were really ambigous to which Ibrahim confidently replied " in a way it is ambogous
and in a way its not...", Christine then said "that's an ambogous answer".

The other issue was on overseas students who are allowed to form political clubs, Nazim questioned whether it amounted to double standards on the part of govt, Adi stressed that the idea would be more relevant for local students.
Again Christine posed a question to Ibrahim, " Dato, What's the difference between overseas students and local students, is there double standards?"
Ibrahim replied, "the difference is they are overseas!.....We cannot impose our laws in a foriegn country!" Christine's facial expresison summed up
her thoughts on Ibrahim.

regrads

shaike

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 20:43:22 PST
From: Norliza Abdullah <NorlizaA@mailexcite.com>
To: reformasi-malaysia@onelist.com
Subject: [reformasi-malaysia] EXPOSE OF SB INTIMIDATION TACTICS

From: waterfowl@my-dejanews.com
Subject: EXPOSE OF SB INTIMIDATION TACTICS
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 09:23:25 GMT
Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion
Lines: 93
Message-ID: <723nuc$qcp$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.229.235.232

EXPOSE OF “SB” INTELLIGENCE POLICE OFFICERS IN BUILDING A CLIMATE OF FEAR –MALAYSIA AS A POLICE STATE
(Please distribute freely)

The citizens of Malaysia have a right to know that their political masters do not trust them and are constantly keeping watch via their guard dogs, the Special Branch (not so) Intelligence police unit, ala Soviet Union.

We would like to expose them so that they know that Malaysians are not blind to their repressive acts.

1. MD. KAMAL PAWANCHEE was interviewed in the New Straits Times on Friday November 06, 1998 in the page 3 article titled “Law graduates among nine lucky to get seats”, written by Sujatani Poosparajah. In that article, MD. KAMAL PAWANCHEE claims to be a self-employed 30-something citizen that managed to get a seat in the trial of Anwar Ibrahim. His picture appears in the article (can someone please scan and distribute).

However, let it be known that this man is lying. He is a Special Branch
agent. In fact, he is not self-employed, but currently registered as a
student at University Malaya’s Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) program (Bachelors of Education (TESL)). He was planted as a student since last year to monitor and report on University lecturers and students who talk, discuss, anything that is remotely construed as “anti-government”.

The police are filling up the court with plainclothes policemen like Kamal so that ordinary citizens are denied space. Furthermore, they have the gall to be interviewed by the press (NST) and make statements like “the trial was conducted in a very fair manner”, to give the impression to readers that even ordinary citizens observing the trial think it is fair.

Not coincidentally, those of us who know Kamal from the TESL program were quite shocked to see him at the Saturday Demonstrations (Oct 24) on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. He was with his SB colleagues, complete with a red band worn on his arm and harassing and beating innocent citizens.

As a result of agents like Kamal Pawanchee, many professors have been harassed and threatened with anonymous phone calls threatening academicians to shut up or the safety of their family and children will be in jeopardy. They even visit the offices of these academicians and ask questions like are they members of PAS, or ABIM, who do they believe “Anwar or Mahathir”. Mind you, these are not people who are against Mahathir, but merely professors
who have written about topics like the importance of an independent judiciary to ensure national prosperity. This is happening at UM, UKM, ITM, UTM among others.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as Minister of Education is responsible for
this. He is fully cognizant of the activities of these SB agents. He is
responsible for creating a climate of fear in academia which is supposed to be the birthplace of ideas and knowledge through open discourse and academic research.

The SB agents are not limiting their activities to universities. Even
secondary schools are not spared. They will harass teachers with questions like “Saya dengar awak beri markah tinggi kepada murid yang sokong Anwar” (I hear you give high marks to students who support Anwar). And again the same questions about the political affiliations of the teachers. One example is at SEKOLAH MENENGAH SAINS SELANGOR (Selangor Science Secondary School). The
teachers had organized a “Sembahyang Hajat” to pray in preparation of the SPM examinations. After the prayers, the group were chanting “Allahuakhbar” (God is great). Immediately the SB officers came and started their harassment, claiming that Allahuakhbar is a sign of support for the reformasi movement!

Besides our institutions of higher learning, even the media is not spared of infiltration by government agents. One example is the new TV station, NTV7. Ever since this episode, NTV7 was forced to hire a “Senior News Producer” ZAHARIN RAHMAN from RTM (read: Ministry of Information). Zaharin’s job is to check the content of the stories to make sure they are pro-government.
Note,
in the Broadcasting business, there is no justification for a Senior news producer position - it is absolutely redundant. But Zaharin’s job is to make sure that visuals and stories are pro-government, preventing, for example, opposition parties from being shown on air. In edition, his only “editing” contribution was to insist that on the report when Sukma and Munawar were arrested, read the definition of “liwat” was explained to the audience (including children) so that people will be disgusted with Anwar’s crime.
He wanted the anchor to say that liwat means “memasukkan zakar ke dalam dubur Sukma dan Munawar”. Thankfully, the NTV7 team rejected that. Not surprisingly, on that same 8pm news broadcast, the TV3 anchor said the exact same description.

In addition to Zaharin, NTV7 also had to hire “ABANG JON” who works in Building Maintenance. He is an SB agent who reports what the staff say and, whenever anything remotely anti-government is uttered, you can bet that NTV7 will get a call from Jabatan Perdana Menteri or Kementerian Penerangan threatening to revoke their broadcasting license.

This is the extent at which the government will go all out to deceive and manipulate its own people.

It is time the people rise up and throw these demagogues out of power.

NTV7 and TV3's bad knowledge
of English terms on Islam

I am amazed at the lack of Islamic terminology when reporting in English over television in Malaysia. After so many years of "independence" and claims that we are a "Muslim nation", one wonders why this situation should continue to prevail in this country.

News reporting on Hari Raya Haji by both TV3 and NTV7 had serious errors, which can be attributed to either ignorance - which should not take place in a Muslim country - or sheer stupidity.

Take for example the repeated remark that the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong "offered his prayers" - surely the mosque is not some kind of place of worship such as the temple.

Then there was this remark on TV3's English news which stated, referring to the congregation at Makkah (around the Ka'abah) by the words "the penitent". This is a falsehood because Muslims go for Haj because Allah has commanded them to do so in the Qur'an. It has nothing to do with Christian penance.

NTV7 on the other hand referred to the Ka'abah as "stone with a silk cloth". This is something new to me. I have always thought that the Ka'abah had a black kind of cloth with Qur'anic verses in gold thread, silk to my knowledge is prohibited in prayer what more the Ka'abah.

I hope that these matters will be seriously looked into because it reflects our ignorance, creates a wrong impression of Islam to non-Muslims, and may be looked upon as offensive to some Muslims.

Mokhtar Stork
Kuala Lumpur.