Content page

Table of Contents

Page
Acknowledgements i
Table of Contents ii
Glossary of Acronyms iv
Abstracts v

Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background and Rationale 1
1.2 Objectives of the Thesis 3
1.3 Research Question 3
1.4 Methodology 4
1.5 Scope of the Thesis 4
1.6 Thesis Outline 5

Chapter 2 Political and Media Landscape of Malaysia 6
2.1 Political Landscape 6
2.1.1 Melaka and Malay dominance 7
2.1.2 The Japanese invasion 9
2.1.3 The Malayan Union 10
2.1.4 The Alliance and the Merdeka
Social Contract 13
2.1.5 The May 13 racial riot and the NEP 16
2.1.6 1997 economic crisis and
1998 political crisis 25
2.1.7 Split of the Malays and Chinese votes
as kingmakers 27
2.2 The Political Economy of the Press in Malaysia 30
2.2.1 History of newspapers in Malaysia 32
2.2.2 Media legislation 33
2.2.3 The 90s in Malaysia 35
2.3 Suqiu 38
2.3.1 History of Chinese pressure 40
2.3.2 The chronology of the Suqiu episode 45

Chapter 3 Literature Review and Theoretical Framework 48
3.1 Theoretical Framework 48
3.2 Definition of Concepts 48
3.2.1 Race and ethnicity 48
3.2.2 Malay supremacy 56
3.3 Consociational Theory 59
3.4 Plural Society Theory 63
3.5 The myth of News Objectivity 67

Chapter 4 Research Methodology and Questions 70
4.1 Research Methods 70
4.2 Unit of Analysis 74
4.3 Method of Data Collection 75
4.4 Research Questions 76

Chapter 5 Finding and Analysis 78
5.1 Analysis of the News Articles 78
5.1.1 Suqiu is a selfish Chinese demand,
not Malaysian aspiration 81 5.1.2 The Chinese are blackmailing the weak
BN government 87
5.1.3 The Chinese are breaking the
social contracts 93
5.1.4 Suqiu does not represent the Chinese
community 101

Chapter 6 Conclusion and Recommendations 106
6.1 Conclusion 106
6.2 Limitation of Research 111
6.3 Recommendations 112

Reference 113

Appendices 120
Appendix A: The Malaysian Chinese Organisations’
Election Appeals (Suqiu) 120