Citing Guan Eng's article, Wee and Najib accuse M'kini of double standard

TJ PIAI POLLS | Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has again accused Malaysiakini of being unfair against BN’s Tanjung Piai by-election candidate Wee Jeck Seng.

In a Facebook post today, he questioned why the news portal had not amended its headline for an article about Jeck Seng despite the latter amending his comments.

Najib pointed to a previous incident where Malaysiakini changed its headline following correction by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

“Earlier this year, Malaysiakini had no problem changing the headline for Lim’s article where he said the Umno and PAS pact was a declaration of war against non-Malays.

“This is despite it being from Lim’s official press statement [...] Lim later sent a new press statement to retract his old statement [...]

“Malaysiakini had no problem to edit Lim’s headline but they insist on not correcting Jeck Seng's headline,” he posed.

After changing the headline of Lim’s March 6 article to reflect his updated comments, Malaysiakini had clearly stated the amendment in an editor’s note at the top of the article.

In his post, Najib contrasted how Lim’s original comments had stemmed from an official press statement while Wee’s were from a mere Facebook post.

“Malaysiakini, don’t appear so bias and unfair,” he added.

Since losing government in GE14 last year, the former premier has managed to raise his profile on social media and often uses Malaysiakini articles in his jabs at Pakatan Harapan.

On Wednesday, Jeck Seng had published a Chinese-language post on his Facebook page which included the statement “MCA unites to oppose Jawi writing.”

Malaysiakini’s report translated the post into Malay, which led to controversy for the MCA man, especially among Malay-Muslims.

He later edited his original Facebook post to read "MCA unites to oppose the addition of Jawi khat in the Bahasa Malaysia curriculum in Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools.”

Facebook keeps a record of all edits and allows users to access old versions of posts.

MCA president cries ‘double standards’

Instead of clarifying the edit, MCA president Wee Ka Siong yesterday accused Malaysiakini of taking the Tanjung Piai candidate's post “out of context” and claimed that the party never objected to Jawi.

At a ceramah last night, Najib also accused Malaysiakini of reporting untruths and being a “spin expert”.

At no point did Najib or Ka Siong note that the original Facebook post had been modified.

Today, Ka Siong echoed Najib in accusing the news portal of practicing “double standards” when it came to clarifications made by Harapan and BN politicians.

“Malaysiakini’s editorial team amended (Lim Guan Eng’s) headline at the speed of lightning but when it comes to BN leaders, especially BN’s Tanjung Piai candidate Wee Jeck Seng [...] they appear to close their eyes and shut their ears.

“I don’t want to make enemies with any media including Malaysiakini but as an independent and ethical media outlet, it is better if Malaysiakini doesn’t take sides when reporting the news.

“The most important thing is not to have double standards. Don’t use elements of sabotage because of the by-election,” he said on his Facebook page.

- Mkini