The truth is, politics sells

Battle of biz weeklies: Taib outsells Halim?

Edge, Focus go political. In their respective latest issues, The Edge has Eighties' corporate high flyer Halim Saad on its cover while rival Focus Malaysia is front-paging what it happily labels as the "Taib Family Inc". The two business weeklies don't usually feature Malay-Bumi corporate names prominently unless there are scandals and mouth-watering controversies involved, so the Halim-Taib headlines are kind of a "bonus" for the community.

The political undertones in both Halim and Taib's articles are overwhelming, if not overcooked in places. In Halim's lawsuit against Nor Mohamed Yakcop, especially, the attempt to scandalize Umno, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Barisan Nasional are hardly sublte. But that's to be expected, too, given the allegiance of the magazine's owners to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, or so people tell me.

The truth is, Anwar is
a favourite with The Edge

Not all pro-BN bloggers are in a hurry to defend NMY, who only recently was appointed as Deputy Chairman of Khazanah Nasional by the Chairman (and PM) Datuk Seri Najib Razak. A Voice is one example: he spells out F.R.A.U.D from the word go but at the same time sniffs out the politics of the Edge and the agenda of its political idol.

For its big scoop on Taib Mahmud, who is a known pain in Anwar's Pakatan Rakyat's butt where its dream of conquering Sarawak is concerned, there isn't a quote from the man himself. The Chief Minister's hate groups Bruno Manser Fund and Radio Sarawak, on the other hand. are quoted extensively throughout the article. The Mahmud clan is supposed to be linked to 400 companies locally and worldwide, but only five Malaysian PLCs are analyzed in the article.

As the Umno general assembly draws nearer, expect more political articles in our business pages.

-rocky's bru