Photo: Malaysia Chronicle
What you missed: Azmi Anshar’s promotion to chief editor
Sadly, Malaysians are being deprived of news about Azmi Anshar’s promotion to chief editor of the Not Straits Times and his incisive views and other bluster on Malaysian politics as told to India Today, the news weekly.
It’s been censored, according to Malaysia Chronicle. Four pages have been ripped out and the contents page defaced with blue marker.
But it appears that Azmi was only collateral damage, and the real target of censorship was, as usual, Anwar Ibrahim. (The report is available online » Anwar Ibrahim: Return of a reformer with the standfirst: Court clears Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy charges trumped up to destroy his career. Can he become the next PM?)
India Today’s otherwise unremarkable report quotes political analysts James Chin and Ooi Kee Beng, and Anwar’s lieutenant, Azmin Ali, on the repercussions of Anwar’s acquittal of a sodomy charge on Jan 9. NST columnist Azmi Anshar, promoted to “chief editor of one of Malaysia’s most prominent dailies, The New Straits Times,” is quoted as saying the verdict “will finally end Ibrahim’s [sic] ‘unfair advantage’ over his rivals.
The only noteworthy feature, besides the senseless censorship, is that despite Anwar being in the headlines for over 15 years, Indians and other foreigners still call him Mr Ibrahi, whether India Today, The Hindu, the Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, or sometimes even the Wall Street Journal.
uppercaise 