Zainuddin said that it was “a mere coincidence” that his Ministry was running the nightly 90-second political broadcast just as Indera Kayangan by-election was approaching, and that it was “meant to be shown from time to time over a long period” and “part of our psychological warfare against the extremists”.
Malaysians will presume it will also be “a mere coincidence” that the nightly 90-second political propaganda broadcast camouflaged as news will be discontinued immediately at the close of the Indera Kayangan by-election campaign!
From the blatant, brazen and proprietorial manner Zainuddin is justifying the nightly 90-second political propaganda camouflaged as news, he should own up as to whether he is chiefly responsible for this programme as he seems to fancy himself as the Joseph Goebbels of Malaysia and the de facto Barisan Nasional Propaganda Minister.
Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, is dead but his spirit still seems very alive in 21-century Barisan Nasional Malaysia.
Goebbel, regarded as the father of modern propaganda in a totalitarian state, perfects the propaganda craft based on the theory that people would believe the lies if only they were repeated often enough, and the bigger the lie, the better chance it had of being believed.
Zainuddin’s defence and justification of the nightly 90-second Barisan Nasional political propaganda broadcast camouflaged as prime time news over RTM1 and RTM2 is replete with such Goebbellian logic!
If the nightly 30-second broadcast is news and not propaganda, then it deserves to get into the Guinness Book of Records as the “world’s longest-running news” for the same news to be repeated nightly for some three weeks for the Indera Kayangan by-election!
Zainuddin cannot understand why I should object to the nightly 90-second Barisan Nasional propaganda broadcast camouflaged as news painting PAS as representing a “Taliban Malaysia”, aided and abetted by Parti Keadilan Nasional, alleging that this showed that the DAP’s split with PAS and pullout from Barisan Alternative over irreconcilable differences over the Islamic state was a sandiwara.
I do not blame Zainuddin for not being able to understand why I had lodged such strong objections, as Goebbels had he been alive would not have understood as well. However, I will try to make it simple for Zainuddin.
There are at least five reasons why the blatant nightly 90-second
Barisan Nasional political propaganda broadcast camouflaged as prime time
news over TV1 and TV2 is wrong, viz:
The nightly 90-second Barisan Nasional political propaganda broadcast camouflaged as news is a test case as to whether Barisan Nasional leaders understand the basic concepts of fair play, decency and honesty or these simple values are too difficult for them to grasp.
The Cabinet on Wednesday should direct the immediate discontinuance of the nightly 90-second political broadcasts camouflaged as news.
Otherwise, it should ask the Auditor-General and the Anti-Corruption Agency to send in auditors and officers to investigate as to why RTM is not collecting advertising fees from Barisan Nasional for the nightly political propaganda broadcasts, which could easily run to RM1 million to RM2 million, resulting in loss of government revenue. I have been informed that the prime time rate for a 30-second commercial (before adding a five per cent service tax) is RM2,400.
(6/1/2002)