Forget about Reformasi – The new name is Madani
Madani Press Freedom Difficult
1. We are living in the Madani Era. What Madani does will be judged.
2. When Madani came to power in late 2022, the expectation on press freedom was high.
3. Understandably so. For five decades, starting with his student rebellion in the early 1970's, the Madani leader, Anwar Ibrahim, has presented himself as freedom fighter and renaissance man.
4. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was among world's ranking organizations that bought into the mantra.
5. So, for 2023, Anwar's first full year in office, RSF bumped up Malaysia's rating to 73 out of 180 - the best ever.
6. In the beginning, the taste of power was sweet and making promises was easy. The majority of the people were willing to dream along.
7. Alas, the honeymoon up the garden path didn't last very long. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Royal Malaysian Police started to knock on the doors of the over-excited journalists and netizens.
8. Soon they were subjected to investigations, arrests and prosecutions.
9. The MCMC fashioned itself into the Big Brother of the media while the PDRM went after bloggers and facebookers with the same vigour as hunting down murderers.
10. In the beginning, the Madani information and propaganda machines tried to reach out and respond to criticisms. But the olive branch soon withered.
11. The much touted Jabatan Komunikasi Komuniti (J-KOM) fell flat on its face. Instead of convincing its largely Malay audience of the wholesomeness of Madani, it became embroiled in allegation of sexual impropriety that led to the premature departure of one Prime Minister's key public communicator.
12. As the list of unfulfilled reformasi promises grew longer and the reality of governing beginning to become apparent, even the Prime Minister appears to be losing composure. He's hitting back with a slew of angry literary and poetic name-calling.
13. It's thus unsurprising that Reporters sans frontières/RSF) is losing confidence in the Madani press freedom mantra.
14. Progressively, its rating of Malaysia had fallen from 73 in 2023 to 107 in 2024, back up to 88 in 2025 and down to 95 this year.
15. If you ask the Internet: "Why did Reporters Without Borders lowered Malaysia's rankings?, the brief answer would be: "Reporters Without Borders (RSF) lowered Malaysia’s ranking in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index (to 95th place) primarily due to increased government clamping down on media, including blocking news sites and using restrictive laws. Key factors include political pressure on journalists, economic dependency of media, and risks in reporting on sensitive topics like race, religion, and the monarchy."
16. Being rated lower than Timor Leste (30), Papua New Guinea(73) and Thailand (92) isn't much of an applause for the Madani.
17. With a score of between 55 and 70 points, Malaysia is classified as "difficult", which is the second lowest of five categories - good, satisfactory, problematic, difficult and very serious.
Thank you.
Veteran journalist Datuk A Kadir Jasin wrote via his Facebook and shared today, Saturday 2 May 2026.
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