Some critical media advice for Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Last night, on Bloomberg Asia, we (in Australia) saw Anwar Ibrahim being interviewed live over the phone by a journalist (probably broadcast from a studio in Hong Kong or Singapore) regarding the new sodomy charges against him. A foreigner would be at best, puzzled by the verbal barrage that came from the other side, mentioning the "IGP" a couple of times, the "Mongolian model case" once. He talked of "they" and "them" (who are these people? My personal guess is the UMNO people-not the top dogs but those who are in the succession plan are shitting in their pants because they're scared of Anwar taking power) who continue their crusade against him. The journalist did not question what he meant- because it sounded like a lot of incoherent verbal diarrhoea.



If I were in Dato Anwar's esteemed position, I would choose my words carefully for the audience- you are not being interviewed by a Malaysian journalist from a local paper. No one outside Malaysia knows what an "IGP" (Inspector General of Police) is. No one outside Malaysia knows what the "Mongolian model case" is all about.

That invaluable media opportunity to confirm his political position to the world unfortunately didn't do much to help his case at all. Time to get a little bit more media savvy, Dato Seri.

Not all media are like the monkey see-monkey do three ringed circus performers (RTM, TV3, TheStar, NST, etc etc) that you get in mainstream media in Malaysia.