Parliament and Cabinet should deplore the Utusan Malaysia’s offensive, racist and inflammatory article questioning the trust and loyalty  of Malaysian Chinese as a result of Lunas by-election as it also questions the bona fides of the promoters of Sekolah Wawasan

(Penang, Sunday): Parliament and Cabinet should deplore the Utusan Malaysia’s offensive, racist and inflammatory article questioning the trust and loyalty of Malaysian Chinese as a result of Lunas by-election as it also questions the bona fides of the promoters of Sekolah Wawasan.

Utusan Malaysia should be thoroughly ashamed of itself for its most unprofessional, hypocritical, racist, anti-national  and  unMalaysian journalism when it defended the most offensive, inflammatory and provocative  article by Rozaman Ismail which appeared on Friday, questioning the trust and loyalty of the Malaysian Chinese because of the Chinese voter-swing to the Barisan Alternative and the election of  Saifuddin Nasution Ismail  as State Assemblyman in the Lunas by-election on Wednesday.

The article, under the heading "Politik orang Cina di Lunas", asserted that Chinese voters in the country could not be trusted any longer because of the outcome of the Lunas by-election.

In the Mingguan Malaysia today, the editor-in-chief of the Utusan Group, in his Sunday column "Bisik-Bisik Mingguan - Awang Sulung", stoutly defended the incendiary and racist article under the comment entitled "KIT SIANG PALING GEMBIRA", which said:

"JIKA Keadilan dan Pas bergembira dengan kemenangan  Saifuddin Nasution di Lunas, Awang percaya kegembiraan Pengerusi DAP Lim Kit Siang lebih lagi.

"Beliau amat gembira kerana majoriti para pengundi Cina di Lunas memilih Saifuddin untuk menentukan kemenangan calon Keadilan itu. Dua hari sebelum pengundian, Kit Siang turun gelanggang dan perhimpunannya dikatakan dihadiri oleh 10,000 orang Cina.

"Kehadiran Kit Siang tidak diduga kerana kalangan ahli-ahli DAP masih tidak puas hati calon parti itu tidak dipilih mewakili pembangkang di Lunas.

‘Kekalahan Barisan Nasional di Lunas memberikan harapan baru kepada Kit Siang setelah partinya kehilangan pengaruh yang amat ketara di kalangan orang Cina pada pilihan raya 1999.

"Maka apabila wartawan Utusan Rozaman Ismail menulis - ‘Adakan pengundi berketurunan Cina tidak boleh dipercayai lagi’ - Kit Siang telah mengeluarkan kenyataan media memprotes keras rencana 1 Disember itu sabagai membayangkan sikap perkauman Utusan.

"Kit Siang juta menuntut Utusan supaya meminta maaf kepada orang-orang Cina Malaysia. Awang percaya kenyataan itu disiarkan oleh akhbar-akhbar Cina. Jika disiarkan, tercapailah hajat Kit Siang untuk menonjolkan semula kejaguhan Cinanya.

"Fasal apa Utusan perlu meminta maaf. Awang sendiri berpendapat orang Cina tidak boleh dipercayai lagi, setidak-tidaknya di Lunas. Apakah sekadar isu Sekolah Wawasan boleh mengubah dalam sekelip mata sokongan yang mereka berikan kepada BN dalam pilihan raya 1999?  Lupakan mereka betapa banyak lagi pertolongan yang kerajaan BN berikan kepada mereka selama ini. Jika mereka mahu terus menyokong PAS-DAP-Keadilan, tepuk dada tanyalah selera."

I do not propose to reply point-by-point to Awang’s most misleading, misguided and biased comments - except to make the observation that my statement on Rozaman’s article was sent to Utusan but it chose to black it out because of its peculiar sense of journalistic fair play.

Fair-minded Malaysians, however, must be shocked that Rozaman’s offensive, inflammatory and provocative article questioning the trust and loyalty of the Malaysian Chinese after the Lunas by-election has received official endorsement by the editorial leadership of Utusan,  which is UMNO-owned and controlled.

The Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad must dissociate UMNO and the Barisan Nasional Government from this Utusan Malaysia editorial stand if they are serious about Vision 2020 and a Bangsa Malaysia transcending race, religion and other differences in the country.

In the Lunas by-election, some 60 per cent of the Malay and Chinese electorate and 25 per cent of the Indian voters voted for the Barisan Alternative.  If the Lunas by-election outcome had been different, with the Barisan Nasional winning the seat as a result of the support of the majority of the Malays voters, would Utusan Malaysia defend the right of the Chinese and Tamil papers publishing articles questioning the trust and loyalty of the Malays?

I have no doubt that in such a situation, Utusan would be in forefront denouncing Chinese and Tamil newspapers for being racist, anti-national, inflammatory and  provocative if they had  carried articles like the one written by Rozaman but questioning the trust and loyalty of the Malays - even demanding the closure of the Chinese and Tamil newspapers concerned?

Why then can’t Utusan Malaysia understand that Rozaman’s article questioning the trust and loyalty of Malaysian Chinese is completely unacceptable in a multi-racial society committed to creating an integrated Malaysian identity?

In fact, as the Utusan is  advocating the Vision Schools concept at the same time,  the question is raised as to how the concept’s  purported objective of promoting national integration in a multi-racial society could be  genuine when the advocates are so influenced by narrow racist sentiments as could question the trust and loyalty of the Chinese community just because they chose to exercise their constitutional right to use their vote to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Barisan Nasional Government about their grievances and deep sense of injustice.

The Utusan official stand to endorse the questioning of the trust and loyalty of the Malaysian Chinese as a result of the Lunas by-election is in fact the strongest reason why the Barisan Nasional government should drop the Vision Schools plan, as bona fides of the advocates of this concept have come increasingly under question by their own actions and statements.

For the sake of the higher vision  of an integrated Malaysian identity, I would seriously urge the Utusan to admit its error, withdraw and apologise for the racist and provocative stand in  questioning the trust and loyalty of the Malaysian Chinese as a result of the Lunas by-election.  Parliament and Cabinet on their part should  deplore and dissociate themselves  from such reckless, anti-national and un-Malaysian position taken by Utusan.  Or does the Barisan Nasional government want to send out the message that it is not prepared to learn any lesson from its Lunas by-election defeat?
 

(3/12/2000)