Newspapers and Politics in 2006 Elections in Sarawak

Abstract

Newspapers have tremendous impact on how people perceive their world and on how they make decisions. The political decisions the people make could be shaped a lot by what they read in the newspaper. Newspapers often have their own private agenda on what news they are going to communicate to the general public to attract their attention. In Malaysia, however, the newspapers must also know what the government wants them to publish; otherwise they risk their annual permits being revoked, terminated or suspended. As a consequence, mainstream newspapers in Malaysia in general give more coverage to the National Front or the Barisan Nasional (BN) which has governed the country since independence in 1957 and to its component parties especially the United Malay National Organisations (UMNO) and the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) at the national level, and the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) and the Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) in the State of Sarawak than they do to the oppositions. The coverage is not only pro-BN, but it is so lopsided that the oppositions and many analysts alike often accused newspapers in the country guilty of extreme bias as they mainly cover news on the government and government related activities. Is this accusation accurate? Are newspapers in the country pro-government? One way to find out if this is so is to see how the two mainstream English newspapers in Sarawak, namely The Borneo Post and the Eastern Times, covered the Ninth Sarawak State Election which was held on 10-20 May 2006.

Keywords: Politics, election, newspaper coverage, bias, pro-BN

ABSTRAK

Surat khabar mempunyai impak yang tinggi terhadap cara manusia melihat dunia mereka dan cara mereka membuat keputusan. Keputusan politik yang mereka buat akan dibentuk oleh apa yang mereka baca melalui surat khabar. Surat khabar biasanya mempunyai agendanya yang tersendiri mengenai berita yang hendak disampaikan kepada orang awam. Hal ini adalah untuk menarik perhatian umum. Namun, di Malaysia, surat khabar harus mengetahui apa yang kerajaan mahu mereka terbitkan oleh kerana kalau tidak kemungkinan mereka akan menghadapi risiko seperti pembatalan, pemberhentian dan penggantungan permit tahunan penerbitannya. Oleh yang demikian, surat khabar di Malaysia secara amnya akan memberikan lebih liputan kepada Barisan Nasional (BN) yang telah memerintah negara ini semenjak kemerdekaan pada 1957 dan komponen-komponen partinya terutama sekali kepada Persatuan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (UMNO), Persatuan Cina Malaysia (MCA) di peringkat nasional, dan Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) dan Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sarawak (SUPP) di negeri Sarawak, berbanding liputan yang diberi kepada parti-parti pembangkang. Liputan tersebut bukan hanya pro-BN tetapi adalah sangat berat sebelah sampai pembangkang dan ramai penganalisis mengatakan surat khabar di Malaysia bersalah kerana mengamalkan sikap serong atau bias kerana memberikan tumpuan kepada berita pemerintah dan aktiviti-aktiviti yang dianjurkan oleh kerajaan. Adakah tuduhan ini betul? Satu cara untuk menjawab soalan tersebut adalah dengan melihat dan membandingkan cara-cara dua naskah surat khabar bahasa Inggeris di Sarawak iaitu The Borneo Post dan Eastern Times semasa membuat liputan tentang pilihan raya Negeri Sarawak yang kesembilan yang diadakan pada 10-20 Mei 2006.

Kata kunci: Politik, pilihan raya, liputan akhbar, serong, pro-BN