Yoursay: Ex-Rocket editor heading Bernama raises questions

YOURSAY | ‘A known political person should not be appointed for this job.’

Rais Yatim: Not good to put ex-Rocket editor to head Bernama

The Wakandan: Fair enough, former minister Rais Yatim. The background of Wan Hamidi Hamid, being a former editor-in-chief of DAP mouthpiece The Rocket, would certainly affect his suitability for the new post of Bernama CEO.

There would be questions about his neutrality. Rightly, we should avoid appointing a known political person for this job, in order to make it more credible. We have had enough of biased news from Utusan Malaysia.

In any case, people would know which news outlets to read, and today, in this global age without boundaries, fortunately, there are many news outlets to choose from.

It will only be to their disadvantage if they lose their credibility by favouring certain parties. It is not a wise move to do so.

If Wan Hamidi really has to be chosen, then for the sake of Bernama, he has to run it accordingly, otherwise, it will go in the direction of another Utusan or TV3.

I.AM.Malaysian: Rais is right. I support any motion to dismantle the culture of appointing a person who is or was closely linked to any political party.

Let the media be free to report and be the voice of the masses and rakyat.

Clever Voter: This is so hypocritical. It was never an issue during BN rule.

Granted, the proposed person is former editor-in-chief for The Rocket. Does this mean his career opportunities are only confined to those Rocket-friendly organisations?

Government-linked companies employed people who were friendly to BN, and so did state-owned agencies. For years, state-owned RTM was hijacked by BN as its mouthpiece. There are hundreds of examples.

Bernama is the agency for national news and works closely with both national and international media. The proposed person isn't a politician. What happens if someone proposed an individual from Utusan, would Rais have commented on that too?

Jinhua: Bernama was never neutral under the previous government.

I think whoever is appointed by the current government has a higher possibility of being neutral than all who occupied that seat under the previous government.

Not Convinced: There is a Chinese saying, two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because the BN government did it, does not mean Pakatan Harapan should do the same.

Kahlil Gibran: We also need to protect the media like RTM1, RTM2, and Bernama by a special act of Parliament so that they can be independent in their reporting without interference from the government.

Multimedia and Communications Minister Gobind Singh Deo has not done this.

We are not bothered currently about who heads Bernama. But remember the term “meritocracy”, because we have very low standards of reporting and journalism. Most of the newscasters cannot analyse and present the facts.

Gobind, we expect better from you. The media must be free to report and they must have access to information. The Sedition Act 1948 and Official Secrets Act 1972 must be removed. We are watching you.

We'll empower Suhakam but know that LGBT culture unacceptable: Dr M

Anonymous_e5c4a899: Not acceptable to whom? Is this yet another political game to you, Mr Prime Minister (and all other politicians)?

This is not about politics or religion or culture. And the positing of Asian/Malaysian values against Western ones is mind-boggling, when this dichotomy is imagined, politicised and simply senseless.

You started the discourse about human rights being a Western concept. Look where it has brought us today. The divide between us and them remains a dangerous one, and one that not only divides but destroys communities and peoples.

Being a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual (LGBT) is about identity, and if one type of identity is accepted and the other is not, then that is the start of yet another war viz of cleansing a certain identity from the dominant one.

Whether we are able to accept this or not should remain personal and not political.

As prime minister, you are modelling a discourse that allows the continued persecution of LGBTs, and identities that are different from the dominant, and that is simply a violation of humanity.

Proarte: What about the Indian value system? Is it Western? Why has gay sex been decriminalised in India recently?

The Indian supreme court judges opined that based on modern understanding of sexuality, being gay was not an “aberration” of sexuality but a “variation” of human sexuality.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's view appears to be at loggerheads with the judges of an Asian nation with a population of 1.3 billion people.

Hmmmmmmmm: Western values? I would think that these are universal values. Mahathir, I think you are confusing it with your religious values.

Countries like Thailand and Philippines do not discriminate against LGBT. So are they considered as having Western values?

Salam: He's not a hypocrite. Just step outside your house and ask any Malaysian out there if they condone sex or even "marriage" between males or between females.

The majority will be shocked, and most will tell you they are against it. If you do it privately, that's your own business, but if you want the government to legalise it, forget it.

The Muslim population in particular, regardless of race or political party, will say that sex and/or marriage between two males or females is not acceptable in Islam.

So if an "LGBT lifestyle" means condoning sex or marriage between two men or women, forget it. It will never be condoned.

But other than that, an LGBT person has all of the other rights accorded to every other citizen of this country, and furthermore, he or she should not be oppressed.

Anyone who oppresses them is subject to all the available penal laws of the country, and it is the same for anyone else who breaks the law.

And this was never an election promise made by Pakatan Harapan. Those who insist that it is have either not read the Buku Harapan before voting or have not understood the values of the majority of the population of this country.

Gungadin: Well it's about time we change our archaic and outdated "value systems". Where did these "values" come from? They weren't around before. I remember great respect shown to LGBTs in the past.

So who changed our "value systems"? Or have we adopted our newly inspired "value systems" from some prehistoric Middle Eastern culture? And who exactly is the "we" who can't accept all that nature has bestowed upon us?

We elected a new government to rid us of the shackles of a repressive regime. Wake up and smell the roses instead of the decay of the past.

Lovemalaysia2: Saying the West is freer, as if this was a bad thing, is not quite right. Developed countries with well-educated people recognise human rights as the supreme aim of a humane society.

You cannot condemn or penalise a person for the way they are born. They have no power over their genetic make-up. It is unjust to deny people a normal life because of their sexual orientation. - Mkini