Misleading the people again with Utusan lies: When will Umno ever learn?

Repeating the lunacy that grips the mainstream media each time UMNO tries to get itself out of trouble, its newspaper Utusan Malaysia has insisted that it was the participants of the 901 Free Anwar Rally who brought in explosives and set them off.

Quoting unnamed police sources, Utusan featured this bit of news as its headliner two days after the acquital of Anwar Ibrahim, so as to suggest the explosions were the fault of the opposition and not the police or the Najib administration.

It seems Utusan has a better investigative team than even the police. After all, the police investigation is still on-going and any statement by any party including Utusan should be suspect since they seem to know far more than the police. Utusan should be taken to task for publishing a report that can jeopardize the police investigation. What if a different story emerges from the police investigations? What if the explosives were set by forces other than those attending the 901 Rally, such as the police themselves or their agents?

The same tired, old Utusan game

And this is the game Utusan Malaysia is playing. They are in the business of misleading public perception in order to blur the truth. It is an inception of an idea to cloud the public mind to accept, what is essentially, a mere fantasy most likely cooked up by the Utusan editors who wish to do their UMNO masters a favour.

We have seen this ploy used in so many instances, with dutiful assistance also from the police. Two controversial death falls at the offices belonging to the MACC comes to mind, whereby in both instances, the victims - Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbaini respectively - were deemed to have died due to their own doing. The BN's mass-media went to great lengths to ensure that the idea of suicide was prevalent in the minds of Malaysians. But to date, the suspicious nature of the deaths have never been fully explained and the families are still bitterly battling the suicide verdict foisted on their loved ones.

Bersih and Tung Shin

The same 'irresponsible opposition' notion was flown around during the July 9, 2011, Bersih 2.0 rally. The authorities were quick to build the picture that supporters of Bersih 2.0 took it upon themselves to inflict injury onto their own bodies and then blamed the police for it. Similar lies were also spun for the tear gas and water cannon incident at the Tung Shin hospital.

Despite a mountain of visual evidence, the police were brazen enough to insist insist they did not fire tear gas or water canons into the Tung Shin compound. They even enlisted Health Minister Liow Tiong Lay to help them out of their scrape but in the end, they were exposed. It was all confirmed to be a huge UMNO lie and Liow had to apologize publicly. MCA watchers epect Liow to lose his seat in GE-13 mainly because of the credibility he lost over the Tung Shin incident,

As with the Tung Shin incident, Utusan's reporting of who was to blame for the Anwar acquittal explosions preceded the results of an official police probe. One can expect the same sort of complicity, resulting in the same sort of confirmation of an Umno lie in the acquittal explosions as in the Tung Shin incident.

Same with Datuk T sex tape

The same can be said for the Datuk T Sex tape fiasco. The police investigation took a month, and the media had a field day smearing Anwar Ibrahim’s character although a probe was still ongoing. Again, all driven by a mass media bent on building a picture of a tainted Anwar Ibrahim. Yet, the police investigation only brought charges against the trio for public screening of pornography. Which is what they deserved - three Umno men trying to pin a pornography show onto Anwar, the arch rival and nemesis of Prime Minister Najib Razak!

And what about the issue of Christians wanting to install a Christian prime minister? This was also splashed as headlines on Utusan Malaysia’s front-page. The allegations were lifted off a pro-UMNO blogger and set into motion a police investigation. It has been many months since, yet the police investigations have not seen the light of day. Was it because it was clear the general public did not buy into lies such as those told by Utusan Malaysia and UMNO anymore?

But silent on corruption, Jamil's zakat abuse, Altantuya and the like

What is not shown in Utusan is also telling? One wonders about the countless cases of corruption involving UMNO leaders? What does Utusan do with such news, does it keep its eyes perpetually closed and below the radar? For example, what about justice for Altantuya - the murdered Mongolian national whose killing, Najib and Rosmah have been accused of being involved with?

Also, what about the abuse of zakat money or Muslim tithes allegedly for personal purposes by Religious minister Jamil Khir Baharom? Then, there is the luxurious living styles of Rosmah Mansor, can Najib afford it on his pay? What about the capability of Najib Razak to truly follow through with his transformation agenda that till now has struck some UMNO warlords the wrong way?

Instead of spinning stupid lies, give credit to the brave Malaysians who stayed calm at 901

Lastly, why would 901 Rally participants set off explosions to injure their own kin? Such reasoning by Utusan Malaysia defies basic logic. At a time when participants were celebrating justice being served, why go to great lengths to create chaos?

The explosions were clearly meant to destabilize the situation at the rally at that point in time. It is clear, the 'arsonist' wanted to create chaos among the participants or give the impression the rally was causing civic disorder. But the reverse happened.

It is to credit of the good nature of the Pakatan supporters, who were actually Malaysians from all walks of life, that a stampede did not happen. Calm reigned over the blasts and the wounded were attended to swiftly and given medical aid. None of the participants lashed out. Instead, the rally participants left it to the police to do the proper thing - to conduct investigations.

Utusan Malaysia had a golden chance to say good things about these brave Malaysians. To be thankful to the Heavens that no death or loss of life happened during the rally. To be thankful that everyone was calm and that the wounded were attended to.

However, Utusan chose to be spiteful instead. Playing false soothsayer as to who was the guilty party, it tried to undermine the opposition and shift blame from the No. 1 suspect - which is the police and their UMNO bosses - to Anwar's PKR party.

This is the nature of Utusan, which is merely the propaganda mouthpiece of UMNO.

Malaysia Chronicle