What has Mohamed Nazri Tan Sri Abdul Aziz got to say about this? Nazri, can we hear from you, please? You are a product of MCKK. As an Old Boy of MCKK you are supposed to be liberal and a defender of free speech. Are you going to keep quiet and allow your Umno brethren to whack Jalil and demand his resignation/sacking? This is your opportunity to prove that a MCKK education has not been wasted on you, Nazri.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The pro-Umno website, The Unspinners, published this article today:
Ketua Pengarang NST/BH patut letak jawatan!
Ketua Pengarang Kumpulan NST/BH, Dato Jalil Abdul Hamid telah sabotaj persediaan pilihanraya Perdana Menteri merangkap Pengerusi BN dan Presiden UMNO, Dato Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak dan sepatutnya dipecat di atas pengkhianatan ini.
Sabotaj ini dilakukan dengan melaporkan kenyataan bekas Ketua Pengarah Perkhidmatan Awam (KPPA) Dato Abu Bakar Abdullah seolah beliau dianiaya dipecat dari jawatan dan membantu menimbulkan salahfaham dan keresahan dikalangan kakitangan awam.
Jalil Abdul Hamid, the Chief Editor of NST, the Umno-owned mainstream newspaper, was the chap who interviewed me just before New Year’s Day of 2012. The interview, which was published on 1st January 2012, attracted quite a bit of controversy, as expected, just like my TV3 interview did about a year earlier.
(READ THE INTERVIEW HERE: http://malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/newscommentaries/46227-rpk-anwar-may-become-irrelevant)
I suppose the opposition supporters were angry about the title that NST decided to use, RPK: “Anwar may become irrelevant”. But then that was NST’s heading, not mine, and just as I do not allow anyone to decide what I use as the heading of my articles, I also have no say in how others title their articles. That is what is called freedom of expression and freedom of the media, which many do not seem to understand what that means.
The opposition supporters were also upset that I did that interview with an Umno-owned newspaper, which they view as a sacrilegious act. Opposition people must never talk to Umno or Umno-owned newspapers. But aren’t we always screaming that the mainstream newspapers do not give the opposition equal coverage or equal airtime? On the one hand we scream that the mainstream newspapers are ‘blacking out’ opposition news. On the other hand we do not want to talk to them.
Actually, Jalil is an old friend and I tend to regard old friends as still friends even if they happen to be on the opposite side of the political fence. I do not allow politics (or religion) to get in the way of my friendship (which is not quite the way that other opposition supporters view things). And I agreed to that interview only if they agreed to publish the full text of my interview and not an edited version. And they agreed to this term.
In fact, it is not they who wanted to interview me but I who approached them for the interview. Of course, they framed the questions, as any newspaper would, but they did not know how I would reply to these questions. So we both took a chance, I on what the questions were going to be and they on how I would be replying, which they would have to publish even if how I replied was not complementary to the government.
They did try to ‘corner’ me by asking me my opinion on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s ‘reforms’ and I replied that it is not good enough. Though that was not fully covered in the test version of the interview it was in the video version, which they also published. Overall, I would say that Jalil was pretty fair. He allowed what the Umno people would consider as comments not complementary to Najib.
When that 1st January interview was first published, the pro-government people praised Jalil, especially since quite a bit of that interview was not complementary to Anwar Ibrahim, Bersih or Pakatan Rakyat. But now Jalil himself is under attack. The Umno people are calling him a traitor and accuse him of sabotaging Najib and are demanding his resignation or sacking.
The Umno people say that Pakatan Rakyat does not respect freedom of the media or tolerate differing views. They quote Lim Guan Eng and what happened to Tunku Aziz and some other Pakatan Rakyat leaders as examples. The truth is, both sides are the same. Both sides only allow freedom to agree. They do not allow freedom to disagree. Whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat it is the same. They talk about democracy but they do not practice democracy.
So now they want Jalil’s head on a silver platter. In short, NST and the Umno-owned media can only say nice things about the government. Anything that is even slightly not favourable to the government is not allowed. This is also the view of the opposition supporters. Hence, where is this democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, freedom of choice, freedom of association, freedom of media, etc., that we are always talking about? In Malaysia it does not exist. The government will not allow it to exist. The opposition will not allow it to exist.
What has Mohamed Nazri Tan Sri Abdul Aziz got to say about this? Nazri, can we hear from you, please? You are a product of MCKK. As an Old Boy of MCKK you are supposed to be liberal and a defender of free speech. Are you going to keep quiet and allow your Umno brethren to whack Jalil and demand his resignation/sacking? This is your opportunity to prove that a MCKK education has not been wasted on you, Nazri.
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