I always doubted myself for being one sided and heavily relied upon alternative online media instead on solely depending on mainstream media. My doubts were cast upon the pre-supposition I made earlier on whereby I do not believe in the sincerity of mainstream media in reporting a balance piece of information (or you call.. news).
Samy Vellu proved me wrong. Thaipusam was a festival celebrated by Hindu devotees whereby usually it is a common celebrated public holiday in several states in Malaysia (... only). This year our dear Prime Minister has given a nod in allowing KL and Putrajaya to declare Thaipusam as public holiday. Heavenly and joyous moments for students and those who ain't working. Hell to those people like me who's job is being screwed and piled up for the entire weekend, just for such last-minute with little-consideration declaration.
Back to the topic, why Samy? I still remember I was at home on Wednesday, busy doing my work while catching a glimpse on NTV7 News. Samy was commenting regarding the SMS allegedly circulated by HINDRAF which asked all Hindus to boycott Batu Cave temples. He said that nobody responded to the SMS and things go well in Batu Cave on Thaipusam. I still remember the footage shown on NTV7 News which shows many people like jam-packed tunas in a can :)
It's only the next day I was informed by my Hindu colleague that it is untrue. She told me that the usual ritual of going up and down at Batu Caves took about 3 hours for the past years. But however, this year she took only an hour. What a difference. Definately crowd is much lesser than before - I use the word "much".
It was even more interesting where she pointed out HINDRAF was only the side issues. The real issue of the unhappiness of Hindu devotees is actually the Batu Cave Temple which has been charging (Yes... money terms) by selling tickets to all Hindu devotees who wanted to fulfill their religious obligation. Imagine a common Indian family with 5 members... each have to pay RM10... Surely each Thaipusam brings lots of riches to certain party... though not fame I believe. Surely, I'm not sure the Lord Murugan would be happy about this too.
This year was different, less crowd, purchasing tickets was optional. Why of sudden change? I doubt it is an act of repent, though.
Still, something still bothers my mind though I never speak of it as I didn't think it is possible. I was wondering how come NTV7 has the jam-packed footage of Batu Cave Temple packed with Hindu devotees. Telegraph UK has the answer.
"Television news was forced to resort to footage of last year's event."
Hmm... thanks, Samy.
PS: Oh ya, when I asked little rascal to read this post - she was asking, "Is this a political-motivated blog entry?". I said, "No, unless you read as one. It's about media." ;)
