Writing women: The women’s pages of the Malay-language press, 1987-1998 Sonia Randhawa ORCid number: 0000-0002-5919-2663 This thesis submitted to the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Melbourne September 2018 Abstract This thesis investigates depictions of Malay-Muslim women in two Malay-language newspapers, contrasting the portrayals on the women’s pages with how women were depicted on the “malestream” leader and religion pages. I ask why these portrayals were different, paying attention to the political function of the various pages and the relationship of their writers to the keystone party (Umno) of the ruling coalition. The thesis also investigates differences and similarities between the women’s pages of the two newspapers, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian. Using a combination of oral histories with 21 women journalists who worked in various sections of the papers, and content analysis of around 8,000 articles, this thesis asks how the women journalists in the women's page interpreted news values in Malay-language newspaper newsrooms. I further contrast the construction of the “Malay-Muslim woman” in the women’s pages with the hegemonic construction by the ruling party and in the leader and religion pages. The period I examine falls in the calm between two political storms, 1987’s Operasi Lallang and 1998’s Reformasi. During this period, journalists in the Malay-language press saw themselves as largely free, operating within parameters defined not by legislation, but by Asian values and developmental discourse. Writers in the Malay-language press said that a they supported the government primarily because they, like many Malaysians in this era, felt that ruling coalition served the nation’s best interest, rather than due to the extensive legal i constraints on the press. Yet, below this apparently monolithic surface, editors and journalists vied for resources and prestige. In this contest, I found that the women journalists of the women’s pages often saw themselves as pitted against the malestream editorial hierarchy and marginalised in relation to their colleagues. This thesis contributes to the field of feminist media history by examining how gendered newsroom practices in an authoritarian state paradoxically allowed marginalised women’s page journalists greater political and editorial freedom than their malestream colleagues. With the women’s pages perceived as an apolitical space, women journalists were able to engage in investigative journalism and discuss issues that were considered outside the realm of party politics. Further, women page journalists perceived their role differently from malestream journalists, defining their role in terms of the reader, rather than the government. One unexpected result of these greater freedoms was that women’s page journalists were more likely to report censorship than their malestream colleagues writing about politics and economics. Thus, this thesis finds that the women’s page journalists drew upon multiple resources, including constructs of professionalism, Islamic values and reader loyalty to support their attempts to engage in stories that the malestream hierarchy opposed. While they supported the ruling coalition, because the editorial hierarchy, like the political hierarchy, positioned women outside party political contests, women journalists writing for the women’s pages could write stories that advocated a greater public role for women, though this freedom was contingent upon the external political environment. ii I declare that: • this thesis comprises only my original work towards the degree of Doctor of Philosophy; • due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; and • the thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Name: Sonia Randhawa Signature: ~ Date: 8 January 2019 Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been both challenging and exhilarating, intellectually, personally and physically. Throughout all, my supervisors Kate McGregor and Amanda Whiting have provided guidance, inspiration and extraordinary support. I cannot thank them enough for their help. I gratefully acknowledge the funding support from the Australian Government Research Training Programme Scholarship, and the input of Dr Wulan Digantoro and Associate Professor Barbara Keys. The thesis would not have been possible without the collaboration of my 21 respondents. I would like to particularly thank Maizura Mohd Ederis from Berita Harian and Norila Daud from Utusan Malaysia for introducing me to their broad circle of colleagues and friends. Professor Kiranjit Kaur at Universiti Teknologi Mara was my external supervisor in Malaysia, and provided me with contacts and assistance, for which I am also grateful. In terms of the content analysis, accessing materials proved difficult. Without the help of Professor Azmi Sharom and library staff at the Universiti Malaya; and Professor Wang Lay Kim and my research assistant Yong Chee Yan at Universiti Sains Malaysia, this thesis would have been much poorer. My particular thanks to Chee Yan. This thesis is also richer for my Malaysian friends, peers and colleagues, Gayathry Venkiteswaran, Jac sm Kee, Juana Jaafar, Chuah Siew Eng, and countless others. Without your example, your intelligence and your courage, this thesis, and my life, would be unimaginably more dull. Within my cohort at the University of Melbourne, Jennie Jeppeson provided an unstoppable example of balancing motherhood and research. Sharing a room with Shane Smits and Susan Reidy in my first year helped maintain that balance of hard work and manic release that I found necessary at the start of my candidature. And thanks to Jason Ng Sze Chieh for sharing election night 2013. To Susie Latham, thank you for your feedback and support. On a more personal note, this could not have been done without my parenting support networks. From Elaine, Jo, Erin, Amanda, Juliet, and Genie who helped care for my kids; to the PhD Parenting facebook group who helped me maintain a sense of humour throughout the process, thank you. My kids and I have kept sanity and balance in large part through your efforts. Penultimately, thanks to my family. Dorian, Zai and Kavi, you’ve made this thesis so much more difficult than it would have been otherwise, but made my life so much richer than I could have imagined. I love you beyond measure. But lastly, my mother, Ruth. When I fell and, quite literally, broke, you came to pick up the pieces. Without your care and love during those months, none of the rest would have been possible. iv Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………1 Thesis aims and significance……………………………………………………………………………………………….6 The Malaysian context………………………………………………………………………………………………………10 Neoliberalism and the construction of the Melayu Baru……………………………………………………19 Malaysia: An authoritarian state?..........................................................................................23 Chapter outline………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….25 Chapter One: The Malaysian media landscape.…………………………………………….27 Formal constraints on the newspapers and their journalists……………………………………………….28 The multi-lingual print landscape and its implications…………………………………………….32 Media and hegemony: The framing of women……………………………………………………………………34 Professionalisation, newsroom culture, and development journalism as gendered constraints……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..37 Hegemony, women journalists and the women's/ lifestyle pages ………………………………………………………………………….………………………………………44 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….48 Chapter Two: Challenging and constructing hegemony in the newsrooms, a methodology ................................................................................................... 50 Textual analysis: Feminist media studies and critical discourse analysis……………………………..52 Oral histories………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………54 My respondents…….……………………………………………………………………………………………….56 The questions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………61 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….66 Chapter Three: Women in the newsrooms: Their perceptions and stories ...... 67 Women journalists in male papers…………………………..............................................................68 The glass ceiling, promotions and pay…………………………………………………………………….71 The newsroom culture…………………………………………………………………………………………….79 Malestream journalists and women on the margins………………………………………......................82 Writing on the margins……………………………………………………………………………………………………….83 Ethics as constraint and opportunity………………………………………………………………………88 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….96 Chapter Four: Evolving constructions of the Malay-Muslim woman in Utusan Malaysia ........................................................................................................... 98 Utusan's leader page: Writing the Umno model………………………………………………………………100 Men writing the Melayu Baru……………….……………………………………………………….…….101 Writing women in Utusan's leader page………………..…………………………………………….108 Comparing the construction of women in the advice columns in the women's and religion pages……………………………………………………….………………………………………………………….115 The women's page of Utusan……………………………………………………………………………………………122 Di celah-celah kehidupan………………………………………………………………………………………122 The entrepreneur and the deserving poor in