The Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia also accused the state’s PR administration of being petty in imposing the ban, which has now reportedly been frozen pending a review.
In his weekly column, the newspaper’s editor Hassan Mohd Noor questioned the Selangor government’s move to ban the 1 Malaysia billboards.
“On the 1 Malaysia logo, you can’t see the symbol of Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP. Hopefully we won’t see cars with 1 Malaysia stickers being barred from entering Selangor because of the fear of 1 Malaysia,” said Hassan.
“The same with 1 Malaysia t-shirt, cap, Touch ‘n Go card or anything with 1 Malaysia logo should not be banned from Selangor,” he added.
The Selangor government had imposed a state-wide ban on the 1 Malaysia billboards and business advertisements.
The state executive councillor in charge local governments Ronnie Liu, had said that the 1 Malaysia billboards were a political message from the Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government and would not allowed under local by-laws.
Hassan however cited today the case of Rocket United Café in Petaling Jaya, which carried the DAP’s rocket symbol on its signboard.
It is understood, however, that the cafe which was owned by a supporter of the DAP, recently closed for business.
Utusan Malaysia also pointed out that Selangor had previously been allowing state-sponsored political messages to be advertised on billboards.
“In February, the poster of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for the national level Chinese New Year celebration in Pandamaran, Selangor had to be brought down because no permit was granted. However after BN applied for permit, it was only approved for a smaller poster,” said Hassan.
“What was wrong with the poster as it was only promoting a national level celebration? What about ‘Abolish ISA’, ‘Restore water right’, ‘Progressing with Islam’, can those messages be described as political because the idea came from political parties?” he added.
Hassan also claimed that the Selangor government was afraid of Utusan Malaysia and even started a campaign to boycott the Umno-owned daily.
“Since after the last general election the Selangor government under the leadership of PKR, DAP and PAS has been very afraid of Utusan Malaysia. There was also a boycott campaign,” said Hassan.
“It’s the same case with Penang. Recently the fear was brought up again at the Pakatan convention,” he added.
Hassan cited Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s speech at the convention where he called on Malaysians to renounce those preaching hate and violence.
The DAP secretary-general’s remarks was seen as referring to Utusan Malaysia’s call for May 13, 1969 to be declared as a sacred day for the country.
Lim also called Utusan Malaysia supporters pseudo-Malaysians for continuously exploiting the issue of race, religion and the royalty for political mileage. - Malaysian Insider
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