Wednesday 19 March 2008

ELECTIONS STILL A HOT TOPIC ON THE AIRWAVES


Still a hot topic

AIR RAVES BY ANTHONY THANASAYAN

MORE than a week after our general election on March 8, Malaysian politics is still a hot item on many radio stations around the world.

Among several of Radio Australia’s (RA) follow-up stories on our recent polls, the latest was a special interview programme.

The Melbourne-based broadcaster’s Asia Pacific show spoke to a number of our local experts from varied backgrounds.

The interviews, which were conducted separately, lasted four and a half minutes. It was aired last Thursday.

The topic revolved around what RA described as PAS’ “huge gains” during the elections.

“For the first time (the Islamic party succeeded in) pushing (itself) into urban middle-class areas (of the country),” added the Australian international broadcaster.

RA’s presenter Bill Bainbridge spoke to five people.

They were PAS MP for Taman Titiwangsa in Kuala Lumpur Dr Lo’ Lo’ Datuk Hj Mohd Ghazali; Dr Norani Othman, Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Malaysian and International Studies in Bangi, Selangor; and Tricia Yeoh, Senior Research Analyst at the Centre for Public Policy Studies in Kuala Lumpur.

The other two were also from our nation’s capital: Rev Dr Herman Shastri, executive secretary of the Christian Federation of Malaysia, and Mohamad Dehalan, a Kampung Baru resident and retired town planner.

According to Mohamad Dehalan, the reason why many voters decided to switch over to the Opposition was because they were fed up with the level of corruption in the country.

He also added that whilst he personally would like to see Syariah laws being enacted in Malaysia, he realised that would never happen because a two-thirds majority is required in Parliament in order to achieve it.

Yeoh opined that the fear of Islamisation was what prompted the Chinese and Indians to significantly shift their votes.

On the fears of PAS pushing their conservative brand of Islam, Rev Shastri pointed out that moderates in the party ought to know that “the path to political power is to emphasise their anti-corruption agenda; not strict Islamic laws.”

Meanwhile, the 30-minute swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the National Palace on March 10 was carried live by RTM’s Klasik Nasional FM.

Traxx FM conducted a five-minute live crossover round-up of the ceremony when everything was over.

It was a disappointment, however, that RTM’s English radio station did not broadcast the event.

Not only was the event more than worthy of a live transmission, but airing it in English would have benefited many English-speaking listeners in appreciating the details of the ceremony that transpired.

Finally, kudos to Radio 24’s recent coverage of our 12th general election which helped to make the event even more special for radio listeners.

The station which is operated by Bernama presented a lot of insights and views on our voting process.

Its crossovers to the polling booths across the country were generally kept lively and straight to the point.