Government: Second speaker

This House believes reality television does more harm than good
A very good morning to the chairperson, our honorable adjudicators, ever precise time keeper, my dear
opposition members and members of the floor. The motion today is this house believes reality television
does more harm than good. We, the government team strongly agrees with this motion and hereby, again, we
invite the opposition to join this motion.
*My dear adjudicators, the opposition leader does not
(a) refute our definition. Therefore, our definition stays.
(b) state their stand. Meaning, they agree with our stand. Thank you my dear opposition leader.
Before I begin with my point, please allow me to refute the point stated by the opposition leader.
The opposition leader said that, I quote write exactly what the deputy prime minister said. This is totally
misleading and not true. then carry on with your rebuttal
Now, as the deputy prime minister of the government team, I would like to highlight to you, that, reality
television does MORE harm than good.
Members of the floor,
Reality television brings devastating impacts in encouraging negative behaviors among the audience. Studies
by Professor George Gerbner from the University of Pennsylvania, have shown that reality television
contains about 20 violent acts each hour and also that audience who watch reality television are more likely
to imitate those violence acts. Stacey Kaiser is a psychologist who has appeared on reality TV shows,

including "Celebrity Fit Club" and "Diet Tribe," and is the author of "How To Be a Grown Up." She said she
is worried that people's perception of reality is altered when they watch these shows. Here, let me repeat, she
stated, PEOPLE. This indicates that regardless of their age, the audience has a high tendency to be
convinced that the acts shown by the reality television is something RIGHT and ACCEPTABLE.
Apart from the violent acts, The Kaiser Family Foundation(2001) has reported that 80% of the content
presented on reality television is sexual in nature. This means our audience is being encouraged to view premarital sex both natural and desirable, and that their expectations for sex are unrealistic. Before I proceed
with my point, please allow me to provide you with some input of our countrys law. premarital sex is
forbidden in our country for the Muslims, with penalties including up to three years in prison, a fine of up to
5,000 ringgit, about RM1,600, or six strokes of the cane. Premarital sex is not punishable for non-Muslims,
but it remains socially taboo. For your information, members of the floor, Muslims make up 60 percent of
Malaysias population, which means, majority of the audience are Muslims. Hence, this shows that the
content shown by the reality television is promoting the pre-marital sex practice strictly forbidden by our
countrys Syariah law. Of course, you can say that Film Censorship Board of Malaysia has rated certain
reality television programmes as only suitable for audience who are 18 and above. However, it does not set
rating for the races, like, Muslims are not allowed to watch these programme due to its sexual content. And,
regardless of the age of the audience, ladies and gentlemen, when premarital sex and violent scenes are
being shown in the reality television, it indicates to the audience that these acts are a norm and is acceptable.
Again, members of the floor, we stand strong on our feet with the support of proofs and evidence that,
reality television does MORE harm than good.
Now, I will proceed to my second point, which is, reality television causes generalization and
discrimination in the society. Ladies and gentleman, reality television causes generalization among the
society. For instance, a reality television The Biggest Loser broadcast on television is a programme that
centers on overweight contestants attempting to lose the most weight and to fight for a cash prize. The fattest

person will be called as loser. I repeat, LOSER! According to the survey of University of Southern
California, most of the people who watch this have a mindset that one is more successful or more beautiful
when they are slim whereas the fatter person is considered as loser. This will lead to the discrimination
among the members of the society. Psychologist, Dr. Edward Chan said reality television is going to reduce
the confidence of someone who cannot fulfill the prerequisite showed on reality television and this is the
main source of problems such as suicide, anorexia nervosa and depression disorder. Besides, according to
WebMD Medical News, reality television is contributing to eating disorders in teen girls. With shows like
Are You Hot? The Search for Americas Sexiest People and Extreme Make Over, young women believe that
to be accepted you have to be hot or a bombshell. (Kirchheimer) Since the boom of reality television in
2000, eating disorders in teenage girls (ages 13-19) have nearly tripled. This will disturb the daily routine of
someone and lead to health problems. Thus, it is clear to see that reality television has been asserting
something to be true either of all members of a certain class or of an indefinite part of that class, which is
called generalization.
In conclusion, reality television is not only encouraging the negative behavior in society, but it also promotes
discrimination and generalization. There is no doubt that the reality television brings more harm than good
to us, I would like to invite the opposition to join our motion. Before I end my speech, let me reaffirm our
stand to you that, we, the government team strongly believes that reality television does more harm than
good.
Thank you.