Utusan Malaysia is a "Bastardized" paper

Utusan calls for Malays to defend Selangor in Khusrin row

January 05, 2011, MI

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — Utusan Malaysia today raised fears of Selangor joining Singapore as another “country belonging to China outside mainland China” over the ‘state secretary’ tussle between the state and Putrajaya.

Assistant editor-in-chief Zaini Hassan’s column called on Malays to “have the same zeal as China, India and Israel” to “defend their sovereignty in governing the country” after seeing Pakatan Rakyat (PR) reject the choice of the federally-controlled Public Services Department (PSD), Datuk Mohamed Khusrin Munawi, as the new state secretary.

“Do we Malays (already so few in the world) want to allow another country belonging to China or India outside their own lands? It should be enough with Singapore (a country belonging to China outside mainland China). Do we also want to give away this homeland?” he wrote, referring to Selangor.

Zaini cited the Hans in China and the Hindus in India who enjoyed supremacy in their countries as they formed the majority population.

“The People’s Republic of China will defend the Hans, who form 92 per cent of the population, to the very end. For example, any autonomous territory that tries to revolt will be crushed immediately.

“India’s Hindu government... will defend the rights of Hindus more than Muslims,” he added.

Zaini stressed that he was not being racist in raising this concern as it was a fact that other large nations did the same.

“My views are logical and valid. I am not trying to divert the issue concerning the state secretary but in the context of Selangor and its government, there is a connection and relevance,” he insisted.

The country’s richest state has been in turmoil for the past week since the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan named former director of the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) Mohd Khusrin to the post to replace outgoing State Secretary Datuk Ramli Mahmud, whose last day of office was on Friday.

The PR state government are known to be at odds with Mohd Khusrin in the past and Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has insisted that he has the right to decide on the appointment.

He has announced that the state assembly will sit by the end of the month to amend the state constitution to remove the power of appointment of the state secretary from the federal government despite his coalition not currently holding the necessary two thirds majority of the assembly.