“Thief shouting thief” is what I immediately thought of when I saw the Awang Selamat column in Mingguan Malaysia today entitled “Pihak berkuasa kita!”, as it not only reeks of hypocrisy but clearly had the ignoble objective of distracting attention from their incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred through lies and falsehoods with “immunity and impunity” to pit race against race and religion against religion in Malaysia.

Awang Selamat, the collective pen name of the Utusan editors, today made the preposterous and outrageous claims that government agencies were “strengthening” extremist cells in the country by letting the opposition DAP and its alleged “Red Bean Army” (RBA) run free.

The authorities were also attacked for practising double standards for failing to haul up and prosecute DAP leaders or members of the RBA the party purportedly runs for allegedly insulting the Malays, Islam, security forces, civil servants, and the country.

Awang claimed: “In Malaysia, if you want to insult and flare up extremism, join DAP. As the most racist party, DAP has a grand licence to do extreme provocation.

“Strangely, the authorities uses different standards against DAP. If others do as they did then the action would be swift and sometimes could be seen as overly pro-active.”

It is indeed most shocking to read such garbage in Utusan which had an illustrious past but is now a most infamous present-day example of what constitutes a total disgrace to the noble profession of journalism.

The DAP is completely innocent of the wild, reckless and outrageous allegations made against us by Utusan, as it is Utusan which is guilty of the incessant incitement of racial and religious animosities and hatred, and the beneficiary of double standards and selective prosecution of the police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

If DAP leaders had made five per cent of the incessant incitement of racial and religious animosities and hatred to pit race against race and religion against religion, DAP leaders would be going in and out courts and jail with no time for anything else.

But the Utusan editors and writers have special immunity and impunity for their irresponsible and provocative reports and articles.

Can the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Patail explain why the Utusan editors and writers have such “immunity and impunity” for repeatedly breaking laws of the land with their incessant incitement of racial and religious animosities and hatred?

Utusan can only make baseless allegations that DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers, but up to now, Utusan has not been able even to point out in a single instance how DAP National Vice Chairperson and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok’ “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” video is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers!

I have said that Teresa Kok will withdraw and apologise for the video if anyone can point out that the video is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers. Can Utusan do so? This of course reflects most adversely on Utusan’s honesty and journalistic ethics.

When Awang alleged that DAP has “grand licence to do extreme provocation”, he knows that nobody will believe him. But the Utusan editors have a special message for the authorities – that they want the Utusan’s “grand licence to do extreme provocation” to remain intact and untouched!

This is in fact the greatest test of credibility for the Prime Minister and the Barisan Nasional government – how they can continue to allow Utusan to have the “grand licence” to incessantly incite racial and religious hatred in the country to pit race against race and religion against religion.

Is Najib Prime Minister for all Malaysians and the BN government a government for all Malaysians?

I will deal with the other wild lies and allegations by Awang Selamat tomorrow.

(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 2nd March 2014)