Making martyrs of The Edge

In Malaysia, the tame relationship between the mainstream print media and the state can be traced back to 1987 when former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched Operasi Lalang.

Apart from the arrest of 106 mostly opposition activists and politicians, dailies The Star and Sin Chew Jit Poh as well as Bahasa Malaysia weekly Watan – which were all seen to be giving room for anti-establishment voices – were shut down.

The message was loud, clear and effective – step out of line, and the government will not hesitate to shut you down, leaving hundreds of your employees out in the cold.

Since then, Malaysia's print media has been hard-pressed to balance the need to tow the official line, and to speak out against government wrongdoings. The over-arching threat of suspension has convinced media owners to repeatedly err on the side of caution.

All that changed when The Edge decided it wouldn't be cowed by fear.

Beginning last year, The Edge ran explosive reports detailing how the government-owned 1MDB sovereign wealth fund had chalked up debts amounting to RM42 billion, and implicated certain local and foreign individuals with connections to be behind the scandal.

The public was shocked, not only by the sheer volume of public monies involved, but also because it was almost unheard of, until then, for a mainstream media organisation to be conducting investigative reporting of this magnitude against a government-owned agency.

Opposition politicians and NGOs had been talking and writing about the 1MDB controversy for some time by then, but detailed coverage by The Edge was what made Malaysians take notice and believe.

Why did The Edge owners decide to take this path? They say it was a moral obligation to the people. Others say it was a calculated business decision.

Whichever you believe, it was a decision fraught with risks, but one they deemed worth taking after uncovering what they claim to be overwhelming evidence.

And as their boldness in reporting grew, so did the ire of the government.

The three-month suspension of The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily beginning tomorrow will succeed in shutting the paper down temporarily, but will not shut it up.

The sentiment this time round could not be more different than in 1987.

With the age of the internet, the government will find out soon that archaic laws of the past no longer have a place within society, and in fact, will serve to bring recognition and martyrdom to the publications they take action against.

The Edge group has already said work will go on, and reporting on 1MDB will not cease.

Instead of creating fear in the owners and the staff, this suspension has reinforced public belief that The Edge is indeed on the right track, and support from readers and netizens have been overwhelmingly positive.

The Edge and its 350-strong staff may very well pay a steep price for their cause, but they have made clear that it is a cause worth sacrificing for.

As Malaysians, we need to support them because the issue at hand embodies the root of this nation's problems – widespread corruption within the government.

But what can Malaysians do more than merely heaping praise and encouragement to show our support?

The Edge has appealed to their advertisers to continue their partnerships with the paper in spite of the ban. The Home Ministry's suspension tries to hit at not only the credibility and reach of the reporting, but also attempts to exert financial pressure on the organisation.

The hard truth is that idealism cannot feed families, and leaders of corporations that have come out to condemn the suspension must also play a very practical and important role in supporting The Edge group through advertising.

As for the public, we must refuse to allow other issues of the day from distracting us from the 1MDB fracas.

We must be relentless in demanding an explanation surrounding allegations that certain individuals had schemed to use 1MDB to defraud Malaysians of billions of ringgit.

At the end of the day, it is the Malaysian public who must gain from this unfortunate incident. The Edge may be muzzled, but no authority powerful enough can stop the public from demanding the truth. – July 25, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.