By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal | May 20, 2011 The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Perkasa and Umno today urged Malays to protect Utusan Malaysia at all costs, claiming the broadsheet remained the only “true” voice for the Malay race.
Both groups attacked Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties for “unfairly” portraying Utusan as a racist paper and said the Umno-owned daily provided balanced reporting, unlike opposition papers and news portals.
“Utusan Malaysia is the official voice of the Malays, as long as Utusan lives, the Malays will live. “Perkasa will defend Utusan to the very end, as the paper has served the interests of the Malay community well,” said Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali.
Syed Hassan warned “non-Malays” and PR leaders to stop targeting Utusan, saying the Malay rights group would not hesitate to mobilise its members to stage protests in defence of the Umno daily.
Shouts of “Save Utusan, long live the Malays!” were heard as 150-odd Perkasa and Umno Youth members marched to the Utusan headquarters to deliver a memorandum in support of the daily.
“Utusan is brave, it is speaking the truth about the Malays, we are warning those who attack Utusan… over our dead bodies, we won’t let it happen,” shouted a Perkasa member during the march.
Among those who were present today included former Perkasa Youth chief Arman Azha Abu Hanifa and Umno Youth secretary Datuk Megat Firdaus Megat Junid.
“We are here today to express our unequivocal support towards Utusan, because it is Utusan which had united the Malays before independence, and it remains the only avenue in which the concerns of the Malay community can be fairly addressed.
“The paper has done so much for us, we will not allow its reputation to be tarnished by lies,” said Megat Firdaus.
Utusan came under heavy fire recently over a controversial report entitled “Kristian Agam Rasmi?” (Christianity the official religion?) in which it was alleged that DAP leaders and Christian priests were conspiring to take over Putrajaya, abolish Islam as the religion of the federation and install a Christian prime minister.
The report was based entirely on unsubstantiated blog posts by two pro-Umno bloggers, one of whom is currently under investigation by police. The second blogger has since deleted the entire contents of his blog.
Christian leaders and DAP members have denied the reports and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was also forced to host a meeting with the religious chiefs to solve the issue but Ibrahim insisted on Saturday that the report was true.
Utusan Malaysia’s Christian conspiracy report is currently under police investigation.
PKR Youth has postponed a protest against Utusan planned for today to avoid possible clashes with Perkasa and Umno Youth.
Perkasa and Umno Youth members who were present today dared PKR Youth members to show up, saying that the PKR wing’s absence showed that it was “afraid” of facing Perkasa and Umno.
“PKR Youth where are they now? Scared senseless they can’t even show up, they are cowards,” shouted an excited Perkasa member.