Are there no ethics in Malaysian journalism?

Is it just me or is the government putting in a lot of effort into getting a "feel good" factor going? With the amount of propaganda going on in the local media these days, I feel like puking whenever I read so-called professional journalists and columnists write their boot-licking-cum-butt-kissing articles.

Let's have a look at the latest by V.K. Chin in his column with the title, A united community can never be marginalised. It's probably a waste of time to rebut his views point by point, but let's go to his last few paragraphs. Oh, how I love it how these type of writers show their true colours at the end of their articles - every time. It's like, they try so hard to "show" that they are writing objectively, and then they turn around and lay down ridiculous statements, all in the name of serving their political masters.

This particular writer wrote in his Tuesday's column:

It is important therefore to control things before they get out of hand. People must also look at the situation in its proper perspective and in a rational manner.

Feeling marginalised is a matter of perception. In fact, unless there is restrictive legislation, no community can be marginalised, especially in a democratic society where every eligible citizen is entitled to vote for a new government every five years.

It must be said therefore that only a community can marginalise itself because if its members are determined to do the best for themselves, they can overcome all such obstacles.

The Barisan Nasional government has been looking after all the races since Merdeka, as it depends on their votes to renew its mandate. It would be political suicide to ignore any community.

While there are a variety of opinions on whether Hindraf is an extremist group and whether they are worth supporting, my personal views are that there is clear evidence that there is a good number of Indians in Malaysia that are living in poverty and that they have been marginalised by the very same policies that the government has implemented in the name of alleviating poverty in Malaysia. Just that they concentrate more, if not solely, on eradicating poverty of one particular race, rather than Malaysians as a whole.

To say that there is no restrictive legislation in Malaysia is like saying that the National Economic Policy (NEP) never existed. Hasn't the NEP become a "legislation" with the way it is being implemented? Wait...it's way more powerful than a legislation since it cannot be spoken of nor challenged by the rakyat. This is one of the reasons why the government has failed the poor in Malaysia - even the Malays - because the implementation of the NEP is discriminatory and has encouraged the practice of corruption and nepotism. It made racism something common in Malaysia by institutionalising the very idea that it's OK to treat people differently based on one's skin colour.

Just because the people can vote every five years for a new government, it does not mean that there are no marginalised Malaysians. In Malaysia, democracy is like mob rule, whereby the minority voices often get looked over and more often than not, their rights get trampled over - that is until something like the Hindraf rally makes it a big headline. Even then, as we can observe now, the government is deploying its machinery to create an atmosphere where everything seems to be rosy and that everything done so far - be it the Bersih rally or the Human Right Walk - has been politically motivated by the opposition. The writer has no doubt bought into the ridiculousness of it all.

By saying that a community can only marginalise itself because its members are not determined to better themselves is like saying that they are poor because they want to be poor. The excuse sounds so lame.

I have no doubt that there are some people who would like nothing better than to eat off from the hand of the government - rather than put in the hard work to make life better. But the writer should not make light of the the problems of any community by giving lame excuses by implying that "you have only yourself to blame if you are marginalised".

In a single stroke, the writer tried to brush off any connection that exist between the marginalised and government policies. It is certainly misleading, not to mention unprofessional to write such statements even if it is to help the government further its "feel good" agenda.

The last sentence certainly confirmed that the whole reason for the article is to further BN's propaganda by putting blame on the communities themselves for being poor. So how come there is a certain race in Malaysia that doesn't blames itself for its shortcomings? Why is it that they get the leg up on so many areas? So by the writer's points, shouldn't the NEP be abolished?

Are there no ethics in Malaysian journalism?