Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Utusan Melayu ... or Ugutan Melayu?



What is the function of a newspaper in a multicultural society? Is it to expand the mind of readers or to instill fear of others --or even of oneself?

Utusan Melayu (I am still familiar with this name rather than Utusan Malaysia) or the Malay Messenger has some good stuff to contribute to society but generally its and mission and vision is to build soul cages of the Malays. The mind of the Malay is warped, distorted, and archived into a realm of fear of itself and of others. Through the Malay language it brings thinking into a tabloidic dimension and relegates politics into a subject of advancing the backwardness of ultra-communalism.

Utusan Melayu is synonymous with Ketuanan Melayu, Tuntutan Melayu, Rasul Melayu, Kongres Melayu, Kesatuan Melayu, and other forms of glorified anomalies of the progressive Malay mind yearning to be free from the shackles of feudalism, superstition, and neo-feudalistic and urban-superstitious beliefs.

Utusan Melayu claims to be "Penyebar Fikiran Rakyat". But does it expand the mind nor spread the message of peace of the Malays in relation to the much-needed marhaenism with other races?

By calling the Malays not to be "bachul" or "wimp" and to "bangkit" or to rise, the newspaper is showing its irrelevance and outdatedness of rhetoric. Tabloidic and tantric treatment of totalitarian thinking. The Malays are confused what these messages mean because they now have no reason to de-wimp themselves nor to rise. Against who? Are Malaysians not seeing the emergence, though with growing pains, of a two -party system that in which a multicultural coalition is gnawing the roots of ethnocentric-based political alliance that have survived on fear management?

Back to my confusion on the role of Utusan Melayu. On the idea of "kebaculan" and "kebangkitan" (wimpiness and wakefulness)

Perhaps there is a hidden message in all these. The call to de-wimp and rise is a call to arms against the few Malays in power that are using the media to create a false consciousness of who the real enemy is and what the real issue has been. Perhaps the call is to revolt against all forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism that have made the Malays of these days carry an unpleasant name.

Perhaps the call is to rise against all kinds of organizations, paid or volunteer, that seems to advance the "rights of the Malays" and insist on keeping repressive intact to bludgeon others.

Is Utusan Melayu a threat to the advancement of the Malays? Is it still a popular tabloid that now uses threatening means to maintain readership? Or is it merely a continuation of a cultural transmission of fear and trembling, superstition and sensationalism, to get modern Malays to do shadowboxing/shadowpuppet play with bogeymen and bogeymen created from an old script of Ketuanan Melayu?

I do not know. But is it called Ugutan Melayu or Utusan Melayu?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Utusan is painting a bad image for the malays we are not so stupid like those old folks managing the paper.If those old folks feel inferior to other races pls resign and let the young blood take over.Day in day out you enjoy condemning others,but the shame is on us.If our race depends on such shameless underhand to compete,our race will vanish in 50 years or less,so pls take note Mr Editor and stop shameing us all

T H E . M A L A Y . P R E S S said...

let me take over...

Anonymous said...

what is Utusan?it is just a piece of toilet paper owned by Umno goons who always like to stirr race sentiment,ask all the editors better to fly kite...

Anonymous said...

if u read more Utusan,u r eventualy goin backward rather than goin forward....

Tamerlane said...

If utusan is irrelevant then we shouldnt get worked up about its content should we?

T H E . M A L A Y . P R E S S said...

apparently we need utusan, like we need harakah in barisan alternatif.

Old Fart said...

Correct me if I am wrong. The ISA arrests of the last several years, from about 1987 onwards, and maybe a little before that, defines a little differently what ISA really stands for. Rather than it being an Internal Security Act and everything that that conjures up to be, it owuld be more correct that the ISA has properties and attributes that is closer to it being an Internal "InSecurity" Act for those whose interest it was to use it thus.

Whether it was the occassion that warranted it or the people who warranted it, looking at the occassion or event and looking at the people, rather than them having been a threat to the internal security of the nation as defined by the ISA itself, it would be more accurate and honest to say that it was the internal insecurities of UMNO and their leaders that have resulted in the use of the Act.

Tamerlane said...

Are those the same insecurities felt by the singaporean regime as well? a country that almost exclusively monopolized by one race, party?

beyond said...

Utusan is infact a "ularsan" (a combination of words in BM and Japanese)which mean "snake people"; snakes like to wriggle and wriggle until Truth become untruth. To do that they need to stir and stir until their home (BiN) is overflow with shit.

Anonymous said...

We shouldn't be worried about Singapore, what we should be worried about is to stark inability of the Government to just accept that malays have changed and are able to compete and manage the country better than their forefathers. They have become leaders of multiracial organizations which trust their leadership but at the sametime acknowledges that all are equal in Malaysia. Utusan Melayu is trying its best on what worked in 1969 but 40 years on, we have an entire new generation of Malaysians who only know Malaysia as their home so Utusan's efforts will not bear the results that it so desires. Malay, Chinese, Indians and others as Malaysians we want freedom to agree to disagree and what better way could that materialize other than having a 2 coalition democracy.

Tamerlane said...

Malays may have changed but the threat to their existence and way of life remains real. The emergence of many malay rights blogs have somewhat even out the playing field once monipolized by the opposition. This is the true online democracy where opposing voices can be heard. Parpukari is one of my favourites albeit the somewhat harsh laguage he uses.Who need utusan when you can dine on parpu.

Anonymous said...

I respect the fear and anxiety constantly share among the Malay community, but it is unreasonable and unjust if the party in charge keep on passing the blame of their own incapability in governing toward the minority.

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