In July 2015, a reaction from a supposed defamatory article published in a US-based newspaper made the front page of every newspaper in the country because it involved the then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
“Najib: I will sue,” said the headlines quoting his lawyers, Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak, who said it had been instructed to consider action against the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) if there is evidence of a conspiracy against him.
The law firm said in a statement that since the article involved several parties, they were instructed to consider “joint action, or action against, in the event evidence shows a conspiracy against our client.”
Quoting documents from a government probe, the WSJ reported that “Malaysian investigators have traced nearly US$700 million (RM2.6 billion at that time) of deposits into what they believe are the personal bank accounts of Najib.”
It was not the first time Malaysians heard of missing money from 1MDB as opposition leaders, notably the then Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, had levelled similar accusations against Najib.
What followed was a slew of false statements, which prompted me to write that the then government was suffering from the truth-deficiency syndrome.
Then home minister and currently Anwar’s deputy, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, claimed that he had met the non-existent Arab donor while Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan said that “no money was missing from 1MDB”.
Even the then attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali “cleared” Najib by declaring that there was “no evidence that money had been misappropriated from 1MDB.”
“The attorney-general emphasised that to date, there has been no evidence from any investigation conducted by any law enforcement agencies in various jurisdictions which shows that money has been misappropriated from 1MDB,” Apandi said in a statement.
Is history repeating itself?
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since that revelation, by which time the US Department of Justice had already started its investigations.
The lawsuit was never filed; Najib’s BN government was booted out in the 2018 elections and he is currently facing charges related to that RM2.6 million.
With the internet and a borderless world, people treated such statements with contempt and many right-thinking Malaysians believed that the harder the denials of news reports, the closer they were getting to the truth.
Are we seeing a repeat of those shameful days?
On April 24, Bloomberg reported that “Malaysia is in early discussions with tycoons on opening a casino in Forest City.”
Quoting people familiar with the matter, it said it was an attempt to revive the beleaguered US$100 billion property project that “counts the country’s monarch as one of its shareholders.”
Two days later, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called Bloomberg’s report a “lie” and said those mentioned in the report “must take the necessary action”, without elaborating on the instruction.
This is reminiscent of what happened 25 years ago when TheSun ran a story on a plot to kill Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Later in the day, when asked, the then prime minister smiled and dismissed the matter but two days later, all hell broke loose. Editors and journalists were suspended and people whose only relationship with journalism was reading newspapers became editors!
No one denied there was a plot but the resultant police actions still reverberate in the Malaysian journalistic world.
Familiar tactics
In the case of the report on the casino, the two companies reported to be involved in the project - Genting and Berjaya - issued statements to deny the report.
Berjaya’s legal representative then filed a police report urging the police to determine the identity of the unnamed source quoted in the report.
What can the police do? They would rather spend manpower, time, and effort to solve many other criminal cases.
In the past, the government and even the corporate world have issued statements clarifying or correcting misleading reports.
Statements have been made to deny the claims and that should be the end of the matter and treat the issue as “erroneous reporting”, failing which an action can be brought through the civil court.
On Wednesday, Anwar said those accusing the government of wanting to open a casino in Forest City, Johor, should end up in jail.
There was no accusation as such. It was merely a news report and no one accused anyone of wrongdoing.
So, why is this witch hunt continuing? Why use a sledgehammer to swat a fly?
Saying one thing, doing another
As I write this, it was reported that a news editor of a portal had been summoned to the Bukit Aman police headquarters to “give a statement”.
In Parliament in March, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil maintained that his stance on championing media freedom remains unchanged.
“From before I was an MP who championed the plight of journalists and was even slandered in the Dewan Rakyat for defending journalists’ right to report... I was verbally attacked repeatedly.
“As a democrat who holds firm to the principles of reformation, both the government and I do not wish to limit the right to freedom of speech or journalists’ right to do their jobs,” he told Parliament.
So, what’s happening, Mr Minister?
Yesterday, it was reported that Malaysia was placed 107th in Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2024’s World Press Freedom rankings, falling 34 spots from 73rd last year.
Do not expect anything to change but brace yourself to accept that Malaysia’s rankings will continue to slide. I dread to think how many more spots we will drop in the next report. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who writes on bread-and-butter issues. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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