On Raya eve, The Star said that as many as 100,000 visitors were expected to attend Najib Razak’s open house the next day in Seri Perdana.

When my friend and I got to Putrajaya on Raya day, we were hard-pressed to locate the venue. So I suggested to look out for the tens of thousands of cars ostensibly in long queues or parked like sardines to indicate the party.

However there was hardly any traffic on the road, similar to the lacklustre landscape when we dropped by on Merdeka Aug 31.

Photo courtesy of The Star

Star’s figure of 100,000 was later halved by Utusan which said that the open house, held from 10.30am to 3pm, attracted more than 50,000 well wishers.

I managed to catch the tail-end of the gathering and throughout the hour I was there, I guesstimated no more than 2,000 visitors, the turnout likely dampened by rain. Oh well, the rest of 48,000-strong crowd claimed by Utusan could well have been present earlier during peak hours, or possibly were in VIP rooms and not under the tents thronged by members of the public, hence escaping my notice.

But it’s also possible that the mainstream media exaggerated the numbers. After all, Utusan reports about the PM’s Raya open house last year were surely overblown.

Hindraf supporters unwelcome

A Hindraf delegation and a civil society group had gone to catch then-premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at his open house in 2008 at PWTC. They wanted to appeal to him personally for the release of the Hindraf Five from ISA.

This was how Utusan reported: ‘Hindraf’s action is too much, says PM’ (front page), ‘Hindraf is extremist’, ‘Hindraf supporters cause commotion at Raya open house’, and ‘Provocation at Aidilfitri open house’.

Lawyer Haris Ibrahim who led the ‘Hartal ISA’ group had this to say: “I was there and can vouch that there was no unruliness on the part of the Hindraf delegation. In fact I have, in my statement to the police.??? (Haris was questioned by police over the group who wore ‘Free RPK’ and ‘Abolish ISA’ T-shirts.)

My activist friend Nanda gave his eyewitness account: “There was no commotion. People were waiting patiently in lines when they were routed to some other room even though it was known that Hartal ISA and the Hindraf group were there not for the food.???

“The only glitch if one may say so was when the cops were so afraid of the card [festive greeting card drawn by P. Waythamoorthy’s young daughter] and tried really, really hard to confiscate it."

Nanda concluded, “Otherwise, nothing. No unruly behaviour, and no problems.???

What Haris, Nanda and Hindraf spokesmen have attested to is at odds with the description painted in many Utusan articles alleging the Hindraf supporters were ‘biadap’ and 'kurang ajar'.

The real ‘biadap’ group

Picture courtesy of The Malaysian Insider

The provocative people who stepped and spat on the severed cow head in the recent Shah Alam protest against a Hindu temple relocation were the ones really kurang ajar. Yet Utusan did not label them as such nor take them to task.

In contrast to its incendiary coverage of Hindraf, the paper’s headlines on the Shah Alam episode were almost benign: ‘Police not biased in cow head issue’, ‘It is Khalid, Jayakumar’s fault’ (referring to Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and state exco Dr Xavier Jayakumar), and ‘Cow head issue arose because Muslim community’s objection not heeded’.

Yet last year, the Utusan op-eds failed to mention how the Makkal Sakthi movement (now hijacked by a breakaway faction) arose because the Indian community’s many pleas went unheeded.

Hindraf highlighting the marginalization of the Tamil underclass was indeed necessary.

In fact, at Najib’s open house three days ago, there was a group of Alam Flora workers on duty. All of the garbage collectors I saw were dark-skinned Indian men.

The evidence of our eyes tell us that labourers, cleaners, street sweepers, carwash and jaga kereta attendants, office boys and Malaysians in other blue collar jobs are Tamils. Vagrants sleeping in the street are too.

Studies done on poverty and the poor validate the above observations.

On the Indians making their Raya visit, Utusan had published these headlines: ‘[Take] stern action against Hindraf’, ‘[Hindraf] must apologize’ and ‘Hindraf don’t [you dare] take advantage’.

Utusan was peddling its usual instigation and propaganda that opportunistic Malaysians belonging to other races will take advantage of the Malays.

'Ethical' and 'unbiased', bah humbug!

On Friday in the run-up to the first of Syawal, Najib attended a buka puasa with media industry bigwigs at Kompleks Sri Utusan in Bandar Baru Bangi.

Utusan executive chairman Mohamed Hashim Ahmad Makaruddin presenting Najib a 1Malaysia memento

On that same day, the Malaysian Insider reported*: “The Prime Minister hailed the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia today for its ethical and unbiased reporting. The Umno president also praised Utusan for being the voice of the people, especially the Malay community.???

Utusan “the voice of the people??? did not call for the Shah Alam hooligans to apologize. Instead, it publicized that some NGOs, for example the one headed by maverick MP Ibrahim Ali, are willing to stand in solidarity behind those facing charges.

In another mocking Utusan headline – ‘How swiftly the case on the cow head issue is being prosecuted!’ – the writer disingenuously questioned why it was that when followers of other religions take offence, there is quick response but when Islam is insulted, there is no action. The entire article was a piece of insidious writing crafted and calculated to incite the sentiments of Malay-Muslim readers.

Whereas on the Hindraf case, Utusan carried the following headlines, ‘Hindraf is given warning’ (front page), and ‘Act strictly so that Hindraf does not become more aggressive’, and ‘Destroy the race extremists’ (Hapuskan ekstremis kaum). These same headlines are more befitting the Shah Alam protesters but of course, no such thing from spindoctoring Utusan.

‘The law must be brought to bear immediately’ [on Hindraf] and ‘Can be charged for trespassing’ -- the paper chided.

An open house hosted by the PM is one where Malaysians are welcome to attend. Yet the Hindraf supporters were accused of ‘gatecrashing’ a festive-do meant for the public and paid for with taxpayer’s money.

In comparison, Utusan did not agitate for the cow head demonstrators – who should rightly be called ‘aggressive’ – to be punished for illegal assembly.

Given its continued hate-mongering and scare tactics pitting the majority community against the minorities, Utusan is nothing short of a menace to peace, stability and national unity.
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Endnote:

*The Malaysian Insider original report can be found in Google and other caches.

Subsequently, the news portal rewrote its intro (cited above) but without flagging the revision.

Following an independent mediawatch complaint about Insider’s U-turn on the story without any accompanying note to readers, the news portal added this erratum: “A previous edition of this story erroneously reported the Prime Minister as praising Utusan Malaysia for its ethical and unbiased reporting. We regret the error.???

Be that as it may, don’t forget that Najib heads Umno, the party controlling the Utusan media group. Whatever Najib’s precise words at that particular function, the Najib administration has always backed and promoted Utusan whereas denigrating non-establishment media.

He, his Ministers and Umno cannot disclaim responsibility for the paper’s reporting and trajectory.