Awang Selamat, the pseudonym for the newspaper’s editors, wrote today that they were not surprised at the negative reactions it received for making its Jewish conspiracy claim in an editorial yesterday.
In the editorial, the Malay daily said the Bersih rally could open the door to Jews and Israel to infiltrate Malaysia. The paper made the claim in reference to former police chief Tan Sri Rahim Noor’s assertion that there were parties who wanted any country that was against Jews and Israel to be toppled.
Utusan Malaysia’s Jewish conspiracy claims forced a government official to issue a statement yesterday to distance the administration from the newspaper’s views.
The Singapore Straits Times carried the statement, purportedly issued yesterday in response to the daily’s Jewish conspiracy claim, and quoted the official as saying: “The claims made by Utusan today do not reflect the views of the government.
“Malaysia is a tolerant and moderate nation which has long benefited from being home to people of many faiths. Regardless of their political views, it is unacceptable for anyone to stir up hatred and suspicion against any religious group in the way we have seen today.”
The government has been eager to project an image of religious moderation following yesterday’s meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Rome and the announcement that Putrajaya and the Vatican would establish diplomatic ties.
Despite acknowledging today that its Jewish claim would be difficult to prove, Utusan Malaysia still insisted on the existence of “invisible hands” interfering in the country’s affairs.
“Awang takes the stand that we should be careful. Anti-government movements must be investigated in detail. It is not easy to prove the involvement of these foreign hands. We must also look at the individuals in our country,” the paper said.
The Malay daily has been training its guns on Bersih 2.0 since the July 9 rally, publishing hard-hitting articles with anti-Islam accusations against the group and claiming that it was funded by Christian groups such as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from Germany and the Canadian Allied Foundation.
“In our eagerness to protect human rights and democratic practices, there are individuals in our country who are prepared to accept foreign aid. Awang’s main concern now is how we can prevent this behaviour,” the paper said.
It added that if Malaysians were prepared to be “manipulated” by foreign powers, the country would eventually be breached.
“Believe it, the enemy cannot penetrate this fortress if not because of our own people’s betrayal,” the paper said.
Utusan Malaysia’s views today, however, come at a time when the Najib administration is attempting to repair its international image, said to have suffered a major bruising after the massive police clampdown on the Bersih rally.
The arrests of more than 1,000 rally supporters before, during and after the rally, coupled with reports of police brutality, have hit the headlines in prominent international media organisations such as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Guardian, television channels like Al-Jazeera, BBC and regional newspapers like the Singapore Straits Times and the Jakarta Post.
The Najib administration has now entered damage-control mode and last week wrote a letter to the WSJ, denying that protestors had suffered intimidation or repression at its hands and insisting that the country remains a “true democracy”.
Najib has also been forced to defend his handling of Bersih, telling in an interview with CNN’s John Defterios that police action had been “mild” and insisting to international reporters during his trip to London last week that allowing the Bersih march would have resulted in protracted chaos in the country.
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