Friday, August 31, 2007

BBC Stealth edits

This story on Malaysia's 50th independence anniversary has been edited, after the original was a bit too Jim Muir.

Revisionista shows the changes :

Revision 1 :

Racial divide

The celebrations come amid concern over rising social tensions in Malaysia. Half a century of stability and development has transformed a poor disjointed nation into an economic success story, the BBC's Asia correspondent, Andrew Harding, says.

But this anniversary has prompted some soul-searching about Malaysia's widening racial and religious divide, he adds.

Islam has taken a more conservative and assertive form, with Sharia courts challenging the country's secular constitution.

The large Indian and Chinese minorities are becoming increasingly angry about a much-abused quota system that restricts their access to education and jobs.
With elections coming and political parties polarised along ethnic lines, the country is struggling to cling on to its image as Asia's tolerant melting pot, our correspondent adds.

Revision 2

Dramatic Changes

The BBC's Asia correspondent, Andrew Harding, says Malaysia has changed dramatically since 1957.

Political stability and years of ambitious development have transformed the economy.

There are concerns that Malaysia's authoritarian brand of democracy is being challenged by an increasingly conservative form of Islam, with Sharia courts overriding the country's secular constitution, he says.

But the general mood in Malaysia seems to be one of optimism as this nation reflects on half-a-century of upheavals and progress, our correspondent adds.


Now it's quite likely that Andrew Harding said both those things. It's all in the presentation. I wonder who took the decision to 'accentuate the positive' and why ?

(via Biased BBC)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A work colleague is Chinese Malaysian. He reports that at least until recently the universities and government jobs were based upon quotas. The quotas penalised Chines students to the benefit of Malays.

The quota system has reinforced rather than eliminated this divide. Chinese students now work even harder to get into a limited number of places whereas many Malays, tend to work less hard knowing that they compete only against other Malays.

ba ba said...

God that's a good post, you got them down cold.

Anonymous said...

Even Mahathir Muhammad, their former PM, admitted that the Malaysian Chinese were to credit for all the wealth of that country, as the native Malays (who are born Muslims and can never change their status) have been spoiled by racial preferences and unearned Islamic supremacy. Perhaps the Chinese and the Indians will join forces and push for an independent state for themselves, allied with the sensible (and highly prosperous) city-state of Singapore.

Be a slam dunk with all the might of the Rising Chinese Dragon behind them. . .dhimmies no more, and what the eff-all could Malaysia do about it?