(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
missed and are not part of the industrial Revolution and the Industrial Age” (Mahathir, 2001:
p.17).
One of Mahathir’s ideas about the West is illustrated through his rhetoric on democracy (or
the lack of it). Dr.Mahathir was a critique of the democracy practiced under Malaysia’s first
prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, describing UMNO as a party which had become
‘subservient to his person’ and held together ‘through a system of patronage and disguised
coercion;’ and, a government which ‘was openly contemptuous of criticism, with
[p]olicies...which completely ignored public opinion;’ a government ‘busy on devices to
perpetuate itself (Mahathir Mohamad, 1970: 9. 11-12 cited in Johnson, 2004). Despite his
apparent liberal democratic zeal, Dr. Mahathir had his own understanding on how democracy
should work. His ambivalence toward Western democracy was made known in his speech at
the 50th UMNO convention on 11 May 1996. He again delves into democracy in his 2001
speech at the 55th UMNO General Assembly on June 21 of that year. 18 According to
Mahathir, in the West, ‘democracy’ has been made a religion and had ‘bought with it
undesirable consequences. On the on the hand, Malaysian democracy is not a religion
...Democracy is not for democracy’s sake but for the good of the people and the
nation. If the people and the country benefit then we will accept practices which are
said to be democratic. If the people and the nation get only the worst from any
practice that said to be democratic, we will give priority to what is good for the
country and the people and put aside the question of whether or not it is democratic
(Mahathir, 1996).
Dr. Mahathir articulated much on the Western media. One was at the International Seminar
on Enhancing the Understanding of Islam in Kuala Lumpur, 30 June, 2000 which was
published in Encyclopedia of Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, vol.1,
nd: pp. 63-74].
Here, Dr.Mahathir refers to the Library of Congress, in that the whole library is available on
the internet. Software and search engines make it easy to gain whatever knowledge we want
easily.
It is a wonderful world, this world of instant and unlimited knowledge. The media is
given a central place in the dissemination of information about everything through the
printed word and pictures, through radio and television, and through the Internet. The
media cannot be contained and confined. Borders of countries mean nothing to the
media. The whole world can be reached by and through the media instantly, in real
time and at any time. If words cannot describe, picture can speak a million words.
There is now a fantastic opportunity for the media to play a role in the spread of the
truth about everything, to clear the air, to create understanding, to promote what is
food and banish what is bad. There is a golden opportunity for the media to help build
a better, a fairer and more just world. There is a great opportunity for the media to
enrich the world, to enrich everyone everywhere.
There is so much misunderstanding in this world, misunderstanding arising from
wrong information or inability to get the right information. And because of this
misunderstanding countries and regions, peoples and races and the followers of
18 Published as Malays forget easily. Subang Jaya: Pelanduk.
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