Who speaks for Malaysians? Not Utusan, for sure

US President Barack Obama at a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Putrajaya. Utusan Malaysia claimed in its report today that many Malaysians were relieved that Obama was not meeting with opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. – Reuters pic, April 27, 2014.United States President Barack Obama is in town this weekend, meeting an entire host of people and visiting places of interest, 48 years after the last American president came to town.

Umno mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia has seen it fit to say that many Malaysians were relieved that United States President Barack Obama had no plans to meet with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

"Like the US citizens, Malaysians want a leader who is clean, competent and with morals, and not a perverted icon,” said Awang Selamat, the pseudonym for the Malay language newspaper’s collective editorial voice.

In the newspaper's weekend edition, Awang Selamat also poured cold water on the opposition leader’s scheduled meeting with United States National Security Adviser Susan Rice, dismissing it as merely to fulfil the superpower nation's openness policy.

This comes from a newspaper that weeks ago suggested that the CIA could have had a hand in the disappearance of flight MH370. What a turnaround weeks later.

But let's be clear about this. Neither Utusan nor Umno speak for Malaysians. They don't speak for Malays either, if the Election 2013 and the Kajang by-election results are any indication.

Heck, they don't even speak the same language as Obama.

It is wonderful that the leader of the world's most powerful country is visiting Malaysia and gets to enjoy our famous hospitality. But it does not matter whether Obama meets or does not meet Anwar because the last time we checked, the US president does not vote here.

"I believe, that whether we come from a remote village or a big city, whether we live in the United States or in Malaysia, we all share basic human aspirations: To live in dignity and peace. To shape our own destiny. To be able to make a living and to work hard and support a family. And most of all, to leave the next generation something better than was left to us.

"These are the aspirations that I believe illuminate a new era of partnership, of 'berkerja sama' between the United States and Malaysia. For while we may be different as nations, our people have similar hopes and similar aspirations. And we can draw strength in both our nations from our ethnic and religious diversity. We can draw hope from our history. And we dream of a brighter future for all of our children," Obama said last night at an official banquet in the Istana Negara, Kuala Lumpur.

The US president said Malaysia would do well to embrace its diversity, something which Umno and its mouthpiece have systematically tried to deny and destroy in the past few years since the political tsunami of 2008.

It is wonderful that the leader of the world's most powerful country is visiting Malaysia and gets to enjoy our famous hospitality.

But it does not matter whether Obama meets or does not meet Anwar because the last time we checked, the US president does not vote here.

In fact, it is hilarious how Malaysians are falling over themselves over the US president and ensuring they are in his photo opportunity moments.

Obama will leave tomorrow, and his words can either take effect or fall on deaf ears. But we Malaysians remain here, to fight against those like Awang Selamat who seek to break our unity and effort for a better Malaysia.