Making the news

THIS week’s Malaysian news has been dominated by two main items. In the process, a more important item — the nosedive in foreign direct investments (FDI) in Malaysia last year — was, and still remains, buried.Indeed, earlier in the week, it was the silly (still-ongoing) saga of this purported young Malaysian billionaire who was initially reported partying with Hollywood celebrities and a no-talent like Paris Hilton.

The fact that this ‘story’ and ‘personality’ were given about four full pages, including the front page in a national newspaper, indicates how desperate our newspapers appear to be at this stage, indulging in gossip, rather than analysing the state of the nation, at least, if not of the contemporary world.

The second headline-grabbing story, of course, hit the front pages of virtually all local newspapers towards the end of the week. This, of course, was the story of the arrest and charging of former MCA president Tun Ling Liong Sik.

Now, this, I guess, was deserving of the front pages. After all, I believe this is the first time in our history that someone who had been conferred a ‘Tun’ — the highest civil award of the land — has been arrested and charged. And what made it even more shocking and intriguing was that, for most of us, it came out of the blue.

Of course, the moment this story hit the front pages, cyberspace began speculating, as the court of public opinion convened. Even as I write this, all manner of explanations and elaborate conspiracy theories are being offered on the Internet.

So, you get those saying that he will get off scot free, given our system, along with those who point to his arrest and applaud the authorities, especially the PM, for genuinely cracking down on potential wrongdoers.

But perhaps the most premature — and quite pathetic, really — was the comment by a senior minister that the Tun’s arrest proves that “the legal system is fair”.

Aw, come on!

In the first place, the poor guy has just been arrested and charged, a preliminary stage in the whole legal process, at best.

Second, even if after he’s had what we all hope is a fair trial — fair not only to him, but to the rakyat whom the prosecution, I think, is supposed to represent — just this one trial will not prove that “the legal system is fair”.

Indeed, I doubt it very much that when the Three Musketeers (plus one) declared “One for all and all for one”, they were talking about how we should evaluate any legal system.

In this regard, it truly puzzles me sometimes how in this day and (digital) age, we still get senior politicians who find it well-nigh impossible to keep their feet out of their mouths — together with their size 13 shoes and gaudy socks.

But I digress.

Actually the most important story that has been kept away from the front pages this week really has to be the story of the United Nation’s 2010 World Investment report, which was unveiled at the UN headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on July 23.

According to the report, Malaysia’s FDI plunged 81 per cent, from US$7.32 billion (RM23.47 billion) in 2008 to just US$1.38 billion (RM4.43 billion) in 2009.

Indeed, according to one report in the web news portal, Malaysiakini, despite the global financial crisis, “Malaysia’s performance pales in comparison with neighbouring economies like Thailand and Indonesia whose FDI figures did not contract as severely.”

One commentator, internationally respected Universiti Malaya economist Prof Rajah Rasiah, was reported as saying that “Malaysia’s poor performance casts doubts over whether it can achieve the targets set to achieve high income status”.

True to form, of course, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti), came up with the ‘explanation’ that the plunge was due to Malaysia being at a different stage of development from our neighbours, thus no longer attracting investment for infrastructure such as roads and power supply.

Basically, the assertion is that we’ve got all that infrastructure already, hence we don’t attract foreign investors in those areas, as compared to our less-developed neighbours, whose roads and power supplies are still inadequate and require foreign investment to develop them.

Yes, perhaps. But, as pointed out by another very senior BN politician who had once been the country’s Finance Minister, this doesn’t explain why a Malaysian company is investing in setting up power plants in Singapore, a country whose stage of development is certainly on par with, if not further ahead than, ours.

Here’s the thing.

Irrespective of what is the correct interpretation of the situation — the UN’s figures and explanations, Miti’s brief and rather unconvincing response, or the scenario pointed out by the former Finance Minister — the local media really ought to be at the forefront of analysing this important issue.

Instead, it is buried and silly stories about privileged playboys and fallen ex-politicians are highlighted. And it is left to the online media to highlight the different explanations for this state of affairs.

A state of affairs that surely affects us as an economy, certainly as a nation, and most definitely as a people.

Contact the writer via zaharom_nain@yahoo.co.uk.