For Guan Eng, it’s ‘do as I say, not as I do’
I PERSONALLY believe it is within Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s right to see whom he wants, and to grant interviews to whichever news organisation he sees fit. Ditto for George Town local authorities, the Penang state government, the Lim family or the DAP.
Regardless of what this newspaper and Utusan Malaysia did to incur his wrath, Lim must surely know that here may be some who would naturally see the disconnect between what he said — he had been quoted to be supporting a free press — and what he did.
That would have been the end of the current topic on the press, specifically two newspapers, and the chief minister. And this would have been a very short piece, indeed.
But it should not be, because it involves the highest official of the state and the leader of a major political party that carries grand ambitions.
Press freedom is like exercise. Everyone says it is good for you and we should be doing some to make sure we live better. A beautiful, healthy body calls for an exercise regime that essentially requires us to get up from the comfy couch, stop eating junk and work up a sweat.
Those who do exercise need to do so diligently, too, even when the body is tired or the mind unwilling. Suffice to say, not many of us do so.
Similarly, many people believe a free press is a good thing, but walking the talk is another thing.
Regardless of what this newspaper and Utusan Malaysia did to incur his wrath, Lim must surely know that here may be some who would naturally see the disconnect between what he said — he had been quoted to be supporting a free press — and what he did.
The coalition, in which he is one of the leaders, has even put a free press high on their list of reforms. A case of do as I say, but not as I do?
To be fair to Lim, there is no law that can compel him to talk to Utusan Malaysia or this newspaper if he does not want to.
Yet he must understand that he is not a regular citizen minding his own business, or still a Mr Opposition. He is the chief executive of a state, taking care of its budget, resources and administration.
He must communicate his vision to the people in the state, not all of whom are DAP or Pakatan Rakyat supporters. Or in this case, they might even be readers of Utusan Malaysia and the New Straits Times. The ban makes sense if he no longer cares to communicate with them, or considers them irrelevant in the running of Penang, or in DAP’s greater dreams of Putrajaya. Please say it isn’t so.
Lim, his party DAP, his boss Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his coalition partners in Pakatan Rakyat, should not put press freedom front and centre of their agenda if they do not believe in it.
If Pakatan Rakyat is a cereal, it fails to live up to the goodness it promises on the box since transparency and accountability are two traits that are unlikely to be challenged by a fawning press.
Lim, too, should expect some criticism, fair or unfair, as much as he should expect plaudits.
It does not do his image any good to be a scowling and scolding politician to the working press. He needs to lighten up. He needs to develop thicker skin.
The prime minister and his family, for example, have never had a fair deal from several news organisations that willingly publish half-truths, innuendoes and personal attacks. Yet they continue to be accredited even to his party events, despite knowing that their reports would largely be aimed at ridiculing him, the government he leads and his party.
Of course, two wrongs do not make a right. But these are strange times we are living in.
At the end of the day, we can of course remind Lim of Voltaire’s “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, or of US jurist Robert Jackson, who suggested that the price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is having to put up with a good deal of rubbish.
But he should have known that already.
