‘Unpardonable sin’ by PM’s Office – Kadir

Former NSTP group chief editor A Kadir Jasin has accused the prime minister’s office of “an unpardonable sin” in alluding to “legacy family wealth” in a response to an article in the New York Times earlier this month.

“Unless the PMO makes an about turn and deny ever making a statement to the NYT about Mohd Najib’s so-called inheritance, it stands accused of tainting the memory of that great man,” said Kadir, writing in his blog on Wednesday.

Photo posted at Kadir Jasin’s blog with the caption ‘Tun Razak a frugal man’

“The PMO propaganda machine can do whatever it likes even at the expense of ethics and morality to protect the PM and his wife. But for it to dishonour and disrespect the memory of Tun Abdul Razak is an unpardonable sin.”

Kadir’s comment on the response by the PM’s Office came in the bottom half of his blog posting, which had been about the prime minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and her comments about rising costs and her RM1,200 hairdo.

“I leave it entirely to readers and debaters to make sense of the RM1,200-hairdo. You can credit her for speaking up on behalf of consumers or loath her for the hair raising price she paid for hair colouring,” he said, before going on to the joint statement by Najib’s four brothers.

Barisan papers fail basic journalism

Utusan, NST, Star, Sun chicken out when Tun Razak’s sons
(minus Najib) respond to ‘legacy family wealth’ claim

Former New Straits Times Press group chief editor A Kadir Jasin has rightly questioned why major newspapers owned by Barisan Nasional parties failed to carry a joint statement by the four brothers of prime minister Najib Abdul Razak defending their late father’s reputation against the prime minister’s office alluding to “legacy family wealth”.

Kadir said the BN papers had flouted a basic rule of journalism, the right of reply, by not allowing the four brothers to respond to what had already been published about their father in those very newspapers and elsewhere.

The New York Times. Feb 8

He told Malaysiakini: “What’s important to note here is that there must be something terribly wrong with the PMO statement to prompt the brothers to not only distance themselves from the content of that statement, but to accuse it of tarnishing the image of their late father” (Tun Abdul Razak, the second prime minister).

Tun Razak’s sons, minus Najib, issued a joint statement on Tuesday night, emailed to all major newspapers, Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and The Edge.

They had defended Razak’s reputation for integrity and frugality in response to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office published in the New York Times.

BN media black out Najib’s brothers

 

Newspapers owned by Barisan Nasional parties Umno and MCA have blacked out a media statement by Najib Razak’s brothers defending their late father’s reputation for integrity and frugality, Malayakini reports.

The statement had been in response to a New York Times report about purported “legacy family wealth” accounting for lavish spending by Najib’s family.

The four junior sons of the late Tun Abdul Razak, second prime minister, had emailed their joint statement to the largest-circulating newspapers, and to Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and business weekly The Edge.

None of the Barisan Nasional-owned newspapers carried any report on the statement, Malaysiakini said.

NOT REPORTED: Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, New Straits Times (all owned or controlled by Umno), The Star (owned by the MCA).
REPORTED: Sinchew Daily, Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press.

Steve Oh case: Police switch to criminal charge

The police investigation into the Steve Oh letter at Malaysiakini is now a criminal investigation and no longer under the Sedition Act. It is being investigated under Section 298 of the Penal Code which relates to injuring the religious feelings of any person, for which the penalty is up to a year’s jail or fine or both.

(There is also an additional Section 298a which relates to causing religious disharmony or disunity or hatred – this carries a mandatory jail term of between two years and five years.) » Penal Code

Malaysiakini chief executive Premesh Chandran said seven police from Subang Jaya, including forensic squad members, visited Malaysiakini again today and left half an hour later after obtaining Steve Oh’s email address. They said they would be contacting him directly.

(Steve Oh is a Malaysian who has lived in Australia.)

Malaysiakini said no statement was recorded from anyone today. The police produced a new search warrant issued by a magistrate in Petaling Jaya, under Section 298 of Penal Code. They did not confiscate any item from Malaysiakini.

Bernama plagiarises Malaysiakini’s Karpal story?

A Malaysiakini story by Susan Loone about Karpal Singh’s remarks on DAP election policy has apparently been plagiarised by Bernama and carried by at least four news sites online.

The story was used at varying lengths by Malaysian Insider and the online editions of The Star, Sin Chew Daily and the Malay Mail, and also reproduced on many other web sites and blogs.

The apparent plagiarism by Bernama comes two days after this blog reported on an apparent plagiarism by the Information Ministry of a two-year-old anonymous blog article containing anti-Semitic remarks and a smear of Anwar Ibrahim. See » Govt ‘plagiarises’ anti-Jewish blog article Bernama, the government-funded national news agency, is a statutory body that also comes under the purview of the Information Ministry.

Govt ‘copies’ anti-Jewish blog article – full details

Blogger’s anti-Jewish article gets federal govt
endorsement in Information Ministry booklet

… we will clarify it objectively, clearly and factually…the focus should be on its content which allows readers to understand the facts behind many issues. — Rais Yatim, minister of information
» THE FACTS: Compare the articles side-by-side below

The federal government’s use of an anonymous blogger’s two-year-old article in an official Information Ministry booklet, appears to be a clearcut cast of plagiarism, besides being out of place in a government publication as it is clearly a party political attack on an opposition politician.

The booklet is called a “guidebook of current affairs” — but it raises a 15-year-old issue, about Anwar Ibrahim as finance minister in 1997, the Asian financial crisis, and the split in Umno leaders about whether to receive aid from the International Monetary Fund.

The blog posting is from the anonymous pro-Barisan Nasional blog Bicara Kelantan. The government did not name the blog or attribute the article: for all extents and purposes, the federal government has plagiarised the posting.

It is possible the blogger is an Umno person known to the Information Ministry, or that an information ministry person fed material to the blogger. Umno’s network of bloggers write on instruction from high-up Umno leaders.

‘Plagiarism’ and lies in official govt booklet

Govt endorses anonymous blogger’s anti-Semitic remarks
Blog article used almost word for word in govt booklet

A pro-Umno blogger’s article has been used almost word-for-word in a federal government “guidebook on current affairs” which contains unsubstantiated allegations, unverified assertions, misleading content and inaccuracies.

In doing so, without attributing the article to the blog, the federal government has

• Plagiarised an anonymous blog
• given endorsement to anti-Semitic remarks
• endorsed unsubstantiated and unverified comment
• brought up a 15-year-old issue about the Asian financial crisis
• used federal funds and facilities for a clearly party political attack

In any properly-run parliamentary democracy, the minister responsible would be told to resign.

The government’s “guidebook” amounts to a taxpayer-funded propaganda booklet for the general election, which must be held by April 2013.
» Compare the articles side by side

Blogger’s anti-Semitic remarks reproduced by Government of Malaysia’s guidebook for Information Ministry staff

About RM300,000 is to be spent producing 50,000 copies of the book for distribution to the public, the information minister said, and the guidebook used by the Information Ministry, Radio-Television Malaysia and Bernama.

Many of the issues in the booklet are political and reflect Umno’s attacks on Pakatan Rakyat and especially on Anwar Ibrahim. Federal government policies activities are given a political perspective.

Govt twists Raja Petra’s article into propaganda

Official document distorts RPK story about Anwar turncoats
Ministry passes off unverified information as truth

A trashy but official federal government publication has twisted an old article by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, about events in 2003-04, into yet another smear about Anwar Ibrahim’s links to George Soros, Jews and Zionists.

It is an indication of the desperation of the Umno-Barisan Nasional coalition in the face of a general election. Some RM300,000 in taypayer funds are to be spend on producing 50,000 copies of a so-called guidebook on current affairs — just in time for use as election propaganda for Umno.

One section is about Anwar’s alleged links to Zionists, and an article that Raja Petra wrote in 2010 is cited as evidence.

Extracts were deliberately chosen to highlight links to George Soros as funding the opposition — but it does not give the full picture, that Raja Petra was writing about how he (and presumably also Anwar, who was then in prison) had been made use of by turncoats who later joined Umno, and that tens of millions in funds were unaccounted for.

Raja Petra talks about his disgust and anger at how he felt betrayed. But the government of Malaysia ignores those remarks and focused only on George Soros.

Star’s sex blogger radio show held up by Net nannies

Public health warning: severe affliction of double-entendritis ahead

Vivian and Alvin having a good time on air with the Star’s radio stations

The Star went to town with the sex blogger story on Saturday, after throwing bodies at the couple the previous day, the way everyone usually does at a good old-fashioned disaster.

A good time was had by all, until the net police showed up, causing a severe case of premature intromission.

Bang went the scheduled 2pm broadcasts on the Star’s three radio stations (and Internet television).

Sex and the single star

A bit limply, The Star asked everyone to visit RedFM’s Facebook page to listen to audio clip excerpts. Group editor Wong Chun Wai, who is also a director of Capital FM, plaintively stated online that the Communications Commission shouldn’t have gone down so hard on them.

Now we’ll just have to wait to see if anything comes up.

Given that sex always sells, that there’s nothing newer than the latest novelty, and that the Shock! Horror! twins never went out of business, just changed into something more comfortable*, it was no surprise that the Star rose to the occasion and went for the splash.

All three of their radio stations and the Internet online television outfit jumped on board the Alvin Tan-Vivian Lee sexwagon, with four girls from the News Desk, one lead story and one senior aunty editor joining the merry romp.

Najib’s annual insult to the press — carry out fearless, open journalism

Najib Tun Razak made his fourth annual insulting appearance before the establishment media last Wednesday at the NPC press awards night, the second of two annual festivals of self-congratulation. (» Not a 9-5 job)

Keeping up his administration’s style, there was more bombast from the prime minister to provide a fine hand-polished gloss over the mean and vicious vindictiveness in his party and in the nomenclatura of his shambolic government and the party’s loyal cadre of right-wing attack dogs.

For the fourth year running, his speech at a press awards night dealt with the noblest principles and aims of journalism and free media — most of which, in practice, the establishment media either wilfully ignore or subvert, either on instruction or out of self-preservation.

Here are some typical quotes from his speech to the National Press Club: