Pakatan wants action taken against Utusan

GEORGE TOWN: Penang Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has called on prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take action against Malay language news daily Utusan Malaysia for allegedly insinuating that DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok should be assassinated.
"Recently, the Utusan Malayu group has unceasingly published false news that have characterised Teresa Kok as a leader who is anti-Malay and anti-Islam," said Penang PAS commissioner Mohd Salleh Man on behalf of the state coalition.

Pointing to a fictional story published in the daily which narrated an assassination plot on a character allegedly similar to Kok, Salleh called the work a piece of "ugly journalism".

He asked for the group’s chief executive officer Datuk Chamil Wariya to be sacked from his post and investigated by the police for inciting the killing of a Member of Parliament.

Salleh said this at the state PKR’s Hari Raya open house in Sungai Dua Jubilee Hall here.

Also present were chief minister Lim Guan Eng, PKR state chairman Datuk Zahrain Mohamed Hashim, PKR state secretary Abdul Malik Abul Kassim and DAP deputy secretary-general Chong Eng.

He said the move to cast aspersions on Kok was unnecessary and based on inaccurate facts, and PR condemned such an "evil" act.


"An unstable atmosphere seems to have been deliberately caused by certain quarters to bring about a feeling of disquiet among the people that can threaten the security of our country," he added.

"Such a campaign does not have a place in political activity in Malaysia, and we urge the prime minister to take appropriate action immediately to end the news group’s dirty tactic," he said.

Meanwhile, Lim said deputy chief minister Mohd Fairus Khairuddin had been performing his duties, contrary to rumours that he was lax as he had not been seen regularly at public functions.

"I don’t see how he has disappeared. He appeared for the last state executive council meeting," Lim said. "He has not disappeared as far as I am concerned."

On assertions by certain MCA members that Umno was acting like a bully within the Barisan Nasional (BN), Lim said those who felt so should leave the BN.

"If you feel that Umno is like a bully, that Umno is corrupted, pull out of BN. Don’t just talk!" he added.

Bernard Cheah
The Sun
20/10/08