Mat Sabu mum on Utusan attack, says can’t recall Aug 21 speech

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

August 28, 2011

Mohamad: I am not denying or confirming anything. I just want to look back at the recordings…Utusan’s reports are not always trustworthy.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Mohamad Sabu has refused to comment on Utusan Malaysia’s attack of his speech allegedly supporting communists, saying he can’t remember all of it and will review it first.

Mohamad was speaking at a political ceramah in Penang’s Tasek Gelugor on August 21.

The PAS deputy president told The Malaysian Insideryesterday that he has not read the Malay daily’s report, and said that he won’t “deny or confirm” whether what was reported was true.

“I cannot recall everything that I said as it was said on August 21…the report in Utusan came out on August 27.

“I am not denying or confirming anything. I just want to look back at the recordings…Utusan’s reports are not always trustworthy,” he said.

During the Emergency (1948-1960), communist insurgents attacked the Bukit Kepong police station on February 23 1950, while the country was still under British rule.

Utusan yesterday quoted Mohamad as saying that the communists who attacked Bukit Kepong police station were heroes insults those who fought for the country.

The report also stated that the PAS leader said the country’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj and Umno’s first president Datuk Onn Jaafar were not freedom fighters

Utusan today launched a full-scale assault on Mohamad over his alleged remarks, this time carrying eight pages worth of comments and criticisms against the PAS leader, ranging from top Umno leaders like Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar to ex-soldiers who had fought communists during the attack on the Bukit Kepong police station in the 1950s.

The Malay daily accused Mohamad of wanting to re-write history to turn Malaysia into a republic.

Several police reports have also been lodged against the PAS deputy president.

Umno-linked newspapers have picked on Mohamed since he was elected PAS deputy president earlier this year as he has been against unity talks with the ruling party.