Terengganu’s one Mercedes too many?
Malaysia media came under the spotlight recently for focusing too much on Terengganu’s purchase of Mercedez E200 Kompressors replacement for the incumbent Proton Perdana V6 Executive cars.
Wrote Bernama,
This happened while members of the media were interviewing Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said, who was also at the function, on the issue.
Many of those who were at the press conference questioned the media members for reporting the issue on the Mercedes purchased by the Terengganu government.
“Do you (media) think this news (on the Mercedes) is good for the people or the government,” said one of them.
Another chipped in saying that the RM3 million spent by the state government for the purchase of the Mercedes Benzes was small and could not understand why the matter was blown out of proportion by the media.
Malaysia’s Minister of Information chipped in to highlight the importance of the media as the fourth estate.
How ironic as it was just in June 2008 that the Malaysia government banned media from entering Parliament.
But the question here is why should a purchase of Mercedes by a state government be important news for the Malaysia media to cover?
The answer can be quite simple. The money used to purchased the Mercedes is state money and it belongs to the people. The people are also interested to find out if the money could have been used for better social benefits instead.
Could the RM3million be used for scholarships instead?
Also the choice of Mercedes over Proton is also worth debating especially Proton is Malaysia’s national car manufacturer.
Over in Singapore, a blogger debated whether the story of Dawn Yang vs Xiaxue should be newsworthy enough to be in the national paper. Is the spat between the two bloggers worth precious print space?
