Has Utusan editor quit because of RM2.6b issue?

A senior editor of Utusan Malaysia has resigned after 32 years of service with the Umno-owned newspaper.

Writing in his last column in Mingguan Malaysia today, Ku Seman Ku Hussein acknowledged that “Utusan Melayu is my university” is his last article for the newspaper.

“Tonight (last night) after I put a full stop on this last jotting, I will step out and leave Utusan Melayu where I had served 33 years and four months.

“I am thankful to have served in this heritage house of the race,” wrote the Perlis-born editor.

In his article, Ku Seman shared a glimpse of his highs and lows in his service since he reported for duty on his first day in 1984 with Zainuddin Maidin, the group editor-in-chief at that time.

Ku Seman did not directly touch on the reasons for his resignation.

However, according to sources, he has resigned as he did not agree with the company’s decision to separate a section of the newspaper to a subsidiary.

This was linked with his strongly-worded articles last year which questioned the integrity of Umno in explaining the purported ‘donation’ received by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak issue.

Column vanished post RM2.6b

Subsequent to the publication of his article ‘The RM2.6 billion donation and Umno’s integrity’, his column which usually appeared in the Sunday Mingguan Malaysia, then ‘vanished’.

The matter has drawn the attention of several quarters, including celebrity Sabri Yunus, former Berita Harian editor Sutu Umar RS and Zainuddin himself.

Ku Seman had previously challenged Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak and Special Affairs Department (Jasa) director-general Puad Zarkashi to a debate on the funding issue.

Zainuddin, in his comments, among other things said that in the 10 years he was editor-in-chief of Utusan, an article had never been ‘pulled out’ in the middle of the night.

Speaking to Malaysiakini afterwards, Ku Seman defended his writings as general and not directed at any individual, and neither were they slanderous.

When asked whether he felt frightened action would be taken against him, he said Umno should be mature because he “had the responsibility to bring up issues of concern to the rakyat”.

Following his resignation, Ku Seman could not be contacted at the time of writing to get the actual reasons he had done so.

Efforts to contact chief editor Aziz Ishak have also not been successful. -Mkini