PETALING JAYA: Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has taken a swipe at communications minister Fahmi Fadzil, saying he responded to Malaysia being placed below Israel in the press freedom ranking in a manner “resembling an Umno minister”.
In the latest episode of his Keluar Sekejap podcast, Khairy said Fahmi was no longer the person he was when in the opposition.
“We must remember that Fahmi comes from a reformist party, PKR. They fight for freedom,” he said in the podcast recorded at UCSI University in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
“So, with that DNA in mind, he shouldn’t respond like an Umno minister.”
On Monday, Fahmi dismissed Malaysia’s low ranking, claiming that the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index was not the “gold standard”.
Malaysia’s standing in the index dropped by 34 places to 107th this year, compared to 73rd last year.
However, Khairy echoed Fahmi’s questioning of RSF’s methodology, especially in light of Israel’s higher ranking at 101st, despite the Jewish state’s recent raid and shut down of television network Al Jazeera’s office in Jerusalem.
Podcast co-host Shahril Hamdan said Fahmi should be more humble and called for a review to understand the reasons behind Malaysia’s ranking decline.
US Treasury officials’ visit a new form of ‘colonisation’
Khairy also likened the visit by top sanctions officials from the US Treasury department to Malaysia to a new form of “colonisation”.
“You are coming here to lecture us on what you think is financial terrorism when the US sent billions of dollars to Israel to murder the Palestinians,” he said.
He said Malaysia must seek new markets like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) instead of relying on the US and Europe.
US undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson and other officials are in Malaysia as Washington seeks to combat funding for Iran and its proxy groups as well as evasion of its sanctions on Russia.
Quoting a source, Reuters reported last week that there had been an uptick in money moving to Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, through the Malaysian financial system.
‘Ample time to ban Israeli-linked companies from defence exhibition’
Khairy said the organiser of the Defence Services Asia (DSA) exhibition had more than enough time to ban companies allegedly supplying arms to Israel, such as Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems, from participating in the event.
He expressed disappointment with defence minister Khaled Nordin for dismissing calls by certain parties to exclude such companies from the exhibition.
“Khaled’s statement was too simplistic. He should be more mature and substantive, but he dismissed the issue just like that when we have a clear stance on it,” he said. - FMT
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