No medals for pro-Umno media

No medals for pro-Umno media.

By Mohsin Abdullah

A day after Datuk Lee Chong Wei's heartbreaking defeat at the Rio Olympics, I spotted on Facebook a disturbing graphic of a Malay newspaper which said our badminton hero had missed out the RM1 million reward for not striking gold.

I say "disturbing" because that graphic which portrayed an image of a down-trodden Chong Wei was apparently "designed" to make him appear to be a person who played only for money. As if his only regret was not winning the money. To me -- and I'm sure many will agree that -- it is a vicious accusation.

That graphic was displayed side by side with a report of an English newspaper which headlined "Three silvers but you are still gold". Obviously the intention was for people to compare the two "reports" -- one bad, one good . And I say this is disturbing as well (in fact very disturbing) because there is a "racial undertone" to it.

The Malay newspaper which supposedly had carried the graphic report was not named, though.

If at all there's anything "good" in this disturbing issue, it must be the fact that Malaysians, including Malays reading the post, spoke against the so called Malay newspaper "graphic report " and defended Chong Wei.

But the real good thing is, it was revealed by many that the "graphic report" was fake .Still it's disturbing to note there are people among us who love to do such "destructive" nonsense. And they must be stopped. Enough is enough!

A day after Chong Wei lost to Chen Long, Mingguan Malaysia hailed the nation's overall medal haul of four silvers and a bronze as the best performance ever since we participated in the Olympics.

Its sister paper Kosmo said Chong Wei is still a hero for Malaysians despite his loss, while Berita Harian highlighted the badminton star's message, that he was sorry for not being able to deliver the gold medal to fellow Malaysians.

A far cry from their "negative reporting" and bad editorial call when presenting the news of the badminton mixed doubles final.

Kosmo and Berita Harian, as we all know, were roasted by a good number of Malaysians for "putting down" Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying despite the pair winning a silver medal at the now concluded Rio Olympics.

The papers as we remember all too well had said Chan and Goh had let Malaysians down or had made Malaysians disappointed and that the pair had "sekadar" won silver.

To be "fair" to both papers, Malaysians were disappointed when Chan and Goh lost the final. And the pair actually won "only" silver and not gold.

Isn't that factual? A statement of fact? If so why were Malaysians angry at both dailies? There are many reasons of course and we all have our take on that matter .I don't intend to specify here.

So I'll cut a long story short. To me, both newspapers, (and Umno linked at that) have always been seen as media fond of playing the racial card. In short, very Malay-centric (read "Umno") as "clearly" seen from the way the papers reported on a wide range of issues, especially politics.

A glaring example in recent times of the newspapers' "racial" or dare I say "racist" stance is their "support" of the action of the Red Shirts who have more often than not hurt the feelings of non-Malays, in particular the Chinese community.

And going back to the badminton issue, accusation of racial card being played was aggravated when Berita Harian heralded cyclist Azizulhasni Awang for his bronze medal.

The immediate "conclusion" of many Malaysians was that a Malay was praised for a bronze medal but the Chinese shuttlers were portrayed negatively even after winning a silver.

Rightly or wrongly that was the feeling of many.

Kosmo and Berta Harian did not react publicly on the accusation. But if they were asked, definitely they would swear they never had the intention of being "racist" with regards to the sport issue.

But the thing is, the issue at hand is beyond badminton, beyond Olympics, beyond sports. It's a question of trust, integrity and credibility.

Umno-linked media must live with the perception that they are "racial in nature". Many are holding on to that perception. And the perception as many people tell us, is everything.

(Mohsin Abdullah is a free lancer who writes about this, that and everything else.)