Utusan Malaysia has come under fire for its coverage of a recent forum, where the Umno-owned publication allegedly painted two panelists as communist sympathisers.
“We question the motive behind Utusan's reporting,” said Imran Rashid who represented Gerakbudaya, one of the organisers of the “A People's History of the Malayan Emergency” forum.
Accusing Utusan of misrepresenting the forum, he said the report had ignited anti-communist sentiments towards the panelists Fahmi Reza and Fadiah Nadwa Fikri.
Forum organisers said the article also focused on the Malaysian Communist Party (MCP) without highlighting the other left-wing organisations mentioned by the panelists.
“We noted that a Utusan journalist was present throughout the forum to listen to the presentations of both speakers, neither of which supported MCP.
“The reporting focussed heavily on communism and they released only that portion of the video from the Q&A session,” he added during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning.
The report mentioned how the speakers urged the government to include MCP's struggle into the History textbook. It also included interviews with those opposed to attempts to glorify MCP.
Imran said the organising committee believes there is a need to review the current History textbook.
“The organising committee believes it is important in the aftermath of GE14 for political bias to be removed from the curriculum.
“It will be more inclusive and critical to allow students to reflect on alternative and widely forgotten narratives of the struggle for Malay independence,” he added.
Imran said the organisers would release a full video recording of the third forum, and upload it on Youtube for the public to evaluate the veracity of the allegations towards the forum and panelists. -Mkini
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