Utusan Malaysia: A slap on the wrist is not enough, This is not the first time

K Pragalath | May 13, 2011

All the Malay daily received was a caution letter from the Home Ministry, was the ongoing debate in micro-blogging site Twitter.

PETALING JAYA: Politicians from both side of the divide are unhappy that Utusan Malaysia got only a slap on the wrist for publishing a front-page article alleging a Christian plot to usurp Islam as the religion of the federation.

They questioned the Home Ministry’s letting off Utusan Malaysia so easily through micro-blogging Twitter .

Last Saturday, Utusan Malaysia carried a front-page article headlined “Kristian agama rasmi?” (Christianity the official religion?), claiming the DAP and the Christian leaders want to take over Putrajaya and abolish Islam as the religion of the federation.

The report implicated DAP’s Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi as the organiser behind a gathering of Christian priests allegedly planning to place a Christian Prime Minister in Malaysia. Both the Christian Church and the DAP denied such a plot, and Utusan Malaysia came under intense criticism for publishing false and baseless news.

Yesterday, Utusan Malaysia’s editor-in-chief, Aziz Ishak was summoned to Home Ministry and given a letter of caution.

Reacting to the punishment meted out to the Umno-owned daily, deputy education minister and MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong wrote on his twitter: “I still remember China Press editor-in-chief was suspended for two weeks for a misleading report on ex-Inspector General of Police (Musa Hassan). The report did not cause disharmony among Malaysians.”

The Chinese daily reported that Musa Hassan as having submitted his resignation to Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Onn, five months before the end of his contract.

Wee also wants action to be taken against blogger Big Dog because the Utusan Malaysia report was based on Big Dog’s blog entry.

“Stern action should be taken against the bloggers for causing disharmony among Malaysians,” added Wee.

Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching meanwhile tweeted to ask why Utusan Malaysia was let off only with a reprimand letter.

Skudai MP Dr Boo Cheng Hau of DAP suggested that Utusan Malaysia should publish a front page apology to Jeff Ooi for the accusation.

Information technology consultant and Subang Jaya state rep Hannah Yeoh’s husband M Ramachandran in his criticism against the light sentence asked Prime Najib Tun Razak to spell out Umno’s stand as owners of Utusan.

‘Bring back Syed Hamid Albar’

Under tweeting trend #suratamaran, many individuals also made fun of the Home Ministry’s slap on the wrist of Utusan Malaysia.

One person wrote: “KDN kpd Utusan: Kehadapan sayang busuk jantung hati intan payung, jgn buat mcm tu lagi eh, janji tau?Kalau tak, takmau kawan!

(Home Ministry to Utusan: To smelly love heart diamond, don’t do like this ah, promise? Otherwise, don’t want to befriend you!)

“Surat amaran: kehadapan editorial utusan yg dihormati. Harap tuan jgn lah mcm ni, pls. Ok? Pls yek? Ingat taw”.

(Warning letter: To respected Utusan editorial. Sir, hope you don’t be like this, please. Ok? Please? Remember)

Meanwhile, blogger Rocky Bru was sarcastic over the rise of the discontent over the Utusan Malaysia article.

He wrote: “So you ducking liberals sulking coz Utusan editors get warning only. You anti-ISA want journos to be ISA-ed izzit? Bring back Syed Hamid la.”

In September 2008, then Home Minister Syed Hamid Syed Albar ordered the detention of Sin Chew daily reporter, Tan Hoon Cheng under ISA for ‘security reasons’.

Syed Hamid claimed that Tan was detained for her safety as the police believed her life was “under threat”.

Hoon Cheng also made ISA history for being detained for the shortest period under the infamous detention-without-trial law – less than 20 hours!

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