Buzz Sociopolitics Malaysia: Garcia is wrong. A new Straits Times it isnt

Dear Tengku Razaleigh

That paper we paid for on Tun Razak's instructions roughly 40 years ago has incited a behind on a descent again. It doesn't want to be The New Straits Times, it keeps wanting to be a brand new Straits Times. we wonder how we feel? (It equates to nothing to me, it's not my paper.)

Having finished a Singapore Straits Times before, as well as made most small hops over to KL whilst trying to do a Star, a large cheese of a journal pattern racket Jose Mario Garcia may have got a small confused about which side of a Causeway he was during a past couple of months.

He's been punishment a line which a NST must emphasize a "new" in a title.

Only trouble is: he's 40 years out of date.

It was New when Umno paid for over a Malaysian assets of The Straits Times in 1972 as well as relaunched a paper. The change came gradually, though made noticeably visible in a titleplate.

First, a blackletter pretension (in Ye Olde English style) made way for a modernised handcrafted face. Then a "New" took a place. And so it remained until after a switch to tabloid masterminded by Kalimullah Hassan. A brand new pretension pattern was churned up. The "New" shrank to nullity as well as a "Straits Times" unexpected re-emerged (in roughly a counterpart image of a change taking place down south.)

A sellout to Singapore, critics shouted.

Now along comes Jose Mario Garcia job for a New to be re-emphasised. And he's managed to remonstrate a nutters in NST management to go along. Once again, a "new" Straits Times.

Except which it isn't.

That alternative rag, The Straits Times, is down there in Singapore, with a small red dot in a pretension sneering during a rest of we yobs.

On our side of a Causeway, what we have is The New Straits Times, a NST (or even a Enesty if we wish), paid for by Umno in 1972 as well as constructed by as well as for Umno ever since.

What Balai Berita constructed on Friday ! was a Ne wer NST.

But by giving in to Jose Mario Garcia's pretension design, they broadcast which they have, once again, regressed to being only a brand new "Straits Times".

Have they no pride left? No sense of shame?

Okay, own up. Who is selling out to Singapore as well as a PAP this time?

Filed under: Journalism, Media