Media Approach, Political Crisis and Political Hegemony: In-Depth Interview with Tun Mahathir

Mahathir’s tenure as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia (1981-2003) witnessed a series of crises associated with his political hegemony involving the constitution, the banning of UMNO, the dismissal of Tun Salleh Abas as Chief of Justice, world economic and financial issues as well as the removal of Anwar Ibrahim. In managing these crises, Mahathir consistenly proclaimed that he had never acted as an authoritarian leader, but rather as a democratic and open-minded administer, and had thus urged the media to practice what he terms social responsibility in their reporting. This study is specifically designed to identify the media approach practiced during the era of Mahathir, to classify those crises and to signify his political hegemony. This study uses in-depth interviews with Mahathir himself. This study found that Mahathir rejected an absolute freedom over media because this could and had endangered harmonious society; rather he believed that an authoritarian approach through laws and legislations are a must to maintain harmonious society. Mahathir also presumed that being labelled as an authoritarian by the opposition was an attempt to create negative sentiments and bad image of his position and his political hegemoy. In managing those crises, Mahathir had also denied that he ever requested ‘assistance’ from the media; but it is their sense of responsibility that had guided them accordingly. Despite Mahathir’s state of denial, researcher believed that his political career would have not able to survive out of those crises without continuous and efficient ‘assistance’ of the media.