MCLM's Haris Ibrahim challenges the Umno president to pull the plug on his party's paper if he is serious about 1Malaysia.
Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) chairman Haris Ibrahim also said that Malaysians should disregard the Umno-owned daily and launch a nationwide boycott.
As for Najib, Haris said: “If you are serious about 1Malaysia, why not revoke Utusan’s permit?”
He added that the Sarawak election on Saturday witnessed a significant amount of people rejecting Barisan Nasional.
“It is a democratisation change but Utusan viewed it along racial lines,” he said, adding that such writings were “typical of Utusan to feed insidious ideas to rural Malays in the Malay heartland.”
In an article yesterday, the Malay-language daily had urged the government to ignore the Chinese because the community supported the opposition.
PAS’ Kuala Selangor MP Dzulkefly Ahmad however warned that Najib would be “digging his grave” if he listened to Utusan.
Meanwhile, political analyst Prof James Chin opined that Umno had decided to brush aside Chinese votes, and this was reflected in the Utusan article.
“Umno cannot depend on MCA and Gerakan to bring in the Chinese votes. Utusan is hoping that BN will sideline the Chinese and Indians but it will not happen because BN takes pride in being a multiracial ruling coalition,” he said.
Suaram coordinator Hasbeemasputra Abu Bakar also took Utusan to task over the article, which he said was racist and belittled the 1Malaysia concept.
“For Utusan to urge the government to distribute development along racial lines is low and uncalled for,” he said, adding that development was the responsibility of the government and the right of the people, and should not be held to ransom.
Previously, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and MIC’s publicity and communications chief S Vell Paari also slammed Utusan over the article.
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