Archive for January 2nd, 2019

UMNO Supreme Council should take responsibility to clear up the financial mess in Utusan Malaysia and not make the Utusan journalists scapegoats of UMNO kleptocracy and incompetence

The UMNO Supreme Council must take responsibility and clear up the financial mess in Utusan Malaysia and not make the Utusan Malaysia journalists as scapegoats of Umno kleptocracy and incompetence.

The Utusan Melayu Bhd staff have urged Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir to return as executive chairman so that he can complete the task of turning the company – which is in a financial mess – around, as Aziz was fully aware of the company’s situation, having put in place a rescue plan for Utusan last June.

Nobody knows whether Aziz’s return to Utusan Malaysia would turn the newspaper around, but I fully agree with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretary Basir Abu Bakar, who is also an Utusan reporter, that whoever helms the company must be committed to saving Utusan.

I will go one step further and state that the UMNO Supreme Council must not be allowed to run away from its responsibility to the Utusan Malaysia journalists, including those who have recently left, as UMNO’s fall from power in Putrajaya in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 cannot and must not be used as an excuse to dismiss the Utusan Malaysia journalists – unless UMNO is going to dissolve itself!

In this connection, I fully endorse the call of Gerakan Media Merdeka (Geramm) to the Utusan Malaysia management to take swift actions to resolve its outstanding issues with Utusan as it is unfair for Utusan Malaysia’s management to sideline the rights of their former workers who for many years had contributed to the company and made a sacrifice in order to keep the country’s oldest Malay newspaper afloat.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 2nd January 2019)

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DAP/Pakatan Harapan will be the underdog in the Cameron Highlands by-election on January 26, and it will be a miracle if DAP/Pakatan Harapan can win but we are in the era of “miracles” with the historic decision of May 9, 2018

DAP and Pakatan Harapan will be the underdog in the Cameron Highlands by-election on January 26, 2019 and it will be a miracle if DAP/Pakatan Harapan can win but we are in the era of “miracles” with the historic decision of May 9, 2018 so we must dare to dream and work for of another miracle next month.

The very fact that we are gathered here in Kampong Orang Asli Simoi Lama, Pos Lenjang, which is not planned as all of us should be in different places at this time whether in Bentong, Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya to ring in the 2019 New Year in New Year Eve celebrations is probably Almighty’s unfathomable ways of highlighting the plight of the Orang Asli in Malaysia sixty years after Merdeka.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Orang Asli community, the first inhabitants in the country, have become the most neglected community in the country after six decades of nation-building and it is time that all Malaysians from all communities and religions should unite as one powerful force to uplift and catapult the Orang Asli community into the 21st century and wipe out this shame and blot on Malaysia’s development history.

We are in the age of Internet where information travels at the speed of light – but from here, we are completely cut off from the outside world, as we cannot communicate with anyone outside this kampong. Read the rest of this entry »

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