by Charles Ramendran, Himanshu Bhatt and Bernand Cheah
The Sun

KUALA LUMPUR (May 11, 2011): A coalition of more than 200 NGOs has criticised the editors of Utusan Malaysia for publishing an article taken from two weblogs alleging a group of Christian pastors were conspiring to make Christianity the official religion of the country.

A. Rajaretinam, who heads the coalition called angkatan Angkatan Warga Aman Malaysia (Aman), said the actions of the editors of Utusan were unethical and could trigger grave consequences among the races in the country.

Accompanied by a dozen members including Aman adviser Datuk Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim and legal adviser A.Sivanesan who is also Sungkai assemblyman, Rajaretinam lodged a police report against the Bahasa Malaysia national daily at 2pm today urging the police and Home Ministry to take stern action.

“What they have done is irresponsible and goes against journalistic ethics. It is malicious and threatens national security. We urge the police to investigate this and the Home Minister to act by suspending the publication of Utusan immediatly pending an investigation.

“We have seen his ministry take action against other newspapers in the past for such mistakes and he should be fair by doing likewise in this case. Utusan has been doing this over and over again and gets away with it. We do not know what is their agenda but they must be punished.” he said.

In George Town, Penang PAS added its objections to a growing list of police reports lodged against Utusan by various quarters since Sunday – a day after the article was published.

The report was made by Penang PAS member Abdul Rahman Kassim at the George Town District Police Headquarters. He was accompanied by about 30 state Pakatan Rakyat members.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, meanwhile, sent a letter to Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein calling for stern action to be taken against Utusan.

He urged Hishammuddin to order the newspaper to retract and issue an apology for “false and malicious reporting”.

In his letter Lim said two Penang Umno assemblymen had confessed that they too did not believe the purported conspiracy reported by Utusan.

Both former deputy chief minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya, the assemblyman for Teluk Bahang, and Farid Saad of Pulau Betong told the state assembly at its recent meeting that they did not believe the report of a plan by the pastors and DAP to establish a Christian state and to have a Christian prime minister.

“Seeing as there are two Umno assemblymen who do not believe the Umno-owned newspaper’s Christian conspiracy, it is clear Utusan Malaysia’s reporting is nothing but lies and borders on sedition,” Lim said in the letter.