From The Nation, Thailand, 14th March 2000

BY DON PATHAN

KUALA LUMPUR -Steven Gan walked out of The Sun newsroom in disgust five years ago after his story was pulled just two hours before printing. Gan had led a team of three reporters to investigate the barbaric conditions in Malaysia's work camps, where migrants workers, mostly Bangladeshis, had died while in government custody, reportedly from torture and neglect.

And when the story surfaced, not in the mainstream media, but at a press conference given by Tenaganita (Women's Spirit), a non-governmental organisation working with migrant workers, the organiser, Irene Fernandez, was thrown into jail.

Initial reaction from the government was denial, but weeks later officials admitted that 46 migrants had died while in their custody. And like most inquiry in Malaysia, the police investigation remains a secret, even today. And Irene is still on trial.

Not much has changed in Malaysia, where Draconian laws such as the Broadcasting Act and the Printing Press and Publication Act still keep mainstream media toeing the line.

Today editors still face the possibility of being thrown into jail for speaking out against the political establishment, while publishers have to live with the fact that running a newspaper in Malaysia is still a privilege, not a right. To prevent them from stepping out of line, a printing licence issued on a yearly basis is required.

But not any more, said Gan, who decided that it was time to challenge the government's hold on the flow of information to the public. Disgusted at what he called the sorry state of the press in his country, Gan and a handful of reporters launched the country's first online newspaper. Within three months, Malaysiakini.com has become a household name. It has reached the top 10 sites in the country. "There is no law to govern us," Gan said.

With the help of Southeast Asia Press Alliance, the online newspaper, in English and Malay, was launched last November just before the country's general election.

It is run by a small outfit of technicians and five reporters who set out to carry "only the news that matters", as stated on the top of its homepage. Malaysiakini ("Malaysia Now") spares no one. Both the government and the opposition have tasted its criticism, while a Chinese language daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh, was accused by Malaysiakini of violating a cardinal principle of journalism when it ran a photo during the recent election in which deposed deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was digitally replaced by Prime Minister Mohammed Mahathir's present deputy. The photo accompanied a story about the unity of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno).

Ironically, the pressure against Malaysiakini does not come from the officials, at least for now, but from the public themselves. "We get calls from people wanting to know about what's happening even before the event takes place," Gan said.

Gan said he welcomed the pressure as it would make the paper work harder.

Malaysiakini is betting on a promise Mahathir made four years ago that he would not censor the Internet. To do so, said Gan and other Malaysian old hands, would be detrimental to the much-needed trust of the foreign technology firms looking to invest in the country's Multimedia Super Corridor.

Unlike the reformasi websites that sprang up immediately after the sacking of Anwar, where anonymity protects the writer from the wrath of the powers that-be, Malaysiakini stories, as well as its editorials, carry a byline.

Because of the lack of resources and personnel, Gan said, the paper will for the time being be focusing on certain issues, such as the ongoing trial of ousted Anwar.

In the future, said Gan, Malaysiakini would like to expand its coverage to carry sports and entertainment to make it a complete newspaper.

For the time being, Malaysiakini is keeping its readers updated on major political events as they unfold, not shying away from any sensitive issues.

In yesterday's edition, Malaysiakini boldly led with Irene's trial, with a former Bangladeshi migrant worker Golam Mawla offering detailed testimony to Malaysiakini and the court about the horrific conditions in the work camp where he and other illegal foreign workers had been kept.

Like the Anwar trial, Irene's trial is likely to put Malaysian media through another humiliating episode.

Gan said he expected to see more competition in the future, with more online newspapers offering independent coverage of the situation in Malaysia.

But with or without the current IT policy, no one feels safe from the wrath and intimidation of the political establishment.

In January the Home Ministry took Harakah, an opposition paper belonging to Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas), off the news-stands on the grounds that it was breaching its licence by selling to non-party members.

The move attracted some harsh criticism from media watchdogs world wide, but that didn't stop them from arresting Harakah's editor and publisher.

"It didn't help much," said editor Zulkifli Sulong, who is now out on bail pending charges of sedition. The government is determined to curb the sales of the paper and restrict it to Pas offices, he said.

Before the crack-down, when Harakah was putting out two copies a week, the circulation was about 380,000. Today it is only allowed to print two issues per month and struggling to make up the loss, Zulkifli said.

The latest victims came from the least-expected publication, the New Straits Times, a government-friendly paper. NST's editor-in-chief, Kadir Jasin, was pushed out in January for writing about the dispute within Umno over who should become the number-two man. He was sidelined in spite of decades of being very loyal to the party, said an NST reporter who spoke on condition of anonymity.