Media statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 30^th January 2012: 

Utusan Malaysia or Chua Soi Lek – which of them lied? Answer: Both lied!

Yesterday, when Utusan Malaysia accused DAP of being the world’s most racist political party, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

To laugh at the poverty of ideas and bankruptcy of journalistic principles of the Utusan editors or to cry at the lack of loyalty and patriotism of Utusan editors to an united, harmonious and successful multi-racial Malaysia!

What came to me immediately was the Greek saying: “Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad!”

The Utusan Malaysia charge was so ridiculous that I put the Utusan Malaysia item on my blog in verbatim, to let more people see the depths Utusan had sunk to from its early days when it was a great newspaper.

Only few days earlier, the MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek was in his stentorian best, spinning the tune that a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS and a victory for DAP in the next general elections is paving the road for PAS’ “days of glory”.

If Utusan Malaysia is right that DAP is the world’s most racist party, then Chua is wrong. If Chua is right, then Utusan must be wrong.

Now which of the two lied - Utusan Malaysia or Chua Soi Lek?

The answer is: Both lied!

Utusan Malaysia is living up to its reputation as the most unprincipled, unscrupulous, extremist and racist voice in Malaysia. Even UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot bring it into line.

This should concern the MCA President as Utusan Malaysia is the official newspaper of UMNO, the political hegemon in Barisan Nasional.

Have MCA Ministers and leaders ever raised in Cabinet and the Barisan Nasional supreme council their concern and objection to the falsehoods and unprincipled, unscrupulous, extremist, racist and downright evil contents in Utusan Malaysia, which not only make nonsense of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s signature 1Malaysia policy and his call on Moderates to speak up to fight extremists, but also exposes the subservience, impotence and irrelevance of MCA and other non-UMNO political leaders in Barisan Nasional?

Of course not, because UMNO is the “Big Brother” and Utusan Malaysia is the “Big Voice of the Big Brother” in Barisan Nasional!

This is why MCA and other non-UMNO BN political leaders have been conspicuously silent when Utusan Malaysia tried to incite racial hatred and religious tension with lies and falsehoods, the most egregious being its baseless charges that DAP wanted to establish a Christian Malaysia and appoint a Christian Prime Minister and that DAP is guilty of the 3Rs of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers.

If Utusan Malaysia had screamed that DAP is the world’s most racist political party in the 90s, I would have been more concerned than its lies yesterday as Utusan Malaysia is now a pale shadow of its earlier self – with its daily circulation plunging by more than half of its one-time high of 350,000.

In the nineties, the majority of Malays still believe what they read in Utusan Malaysia but today it is the reverse – as only a minority of Malays believe what they read in Utusan Malaysia.

As Hata Wahari, when he was still President of the National Union of Journalists, said last May: “Some 50% of Utusan’s sales are government-sponsored. Thirty-six government ministries subscribe to Utusan and the government spends up to RM50 million annually on advertisements. These are Utusan’s only profits because most organisations are reluctant to advertise.”

As far back as January last year, Wahari had blamed the racial rhetoric of the Utusan Malaysia editors fanning racial sentiments as the cause for the daily’s declining sale.

Utusan Malaysia is increasingly desperate because both its circulation and credibility have plunged to new lows.

I had in fact expected an attack from Utusan Malaysia in response to my Chinese New Year Message issued on January 21 and I find it quite amusing that Utusan Malaysia had to take more than a week to pluck up the courage to launch its attack for there is nothing in my Chinese New Year message calling on the Malaysian Chinese “ to unite and rise as one dragon, together with all other Malaysians, to effect a change of power in Putrajaya in the next general elections to begin a new page of history celebrating the greatness of all Malaysians” to justify any person of reason or sound mind to accuse the DAP of being the world’s most racist party.

Utusan is indeed scraping the bottom of the barrel to come out with such a baseless and dastardly charge.

Now, let us ask Chua Soi Lek – whether he agrees with Utusan Malaysia that DAP is the world’s most racist party, which means Chua and all the MCA leaders have been talking rubbish about the DAP all these months. If Chua does not agree, dare he publicly express his dissent with Utusan Malaysia?

If Chua agrees with Utusan Malaysia, let him have the courage and the conviction to speak up!

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor