Utusan accuses Nizar of neglecting Malays
By Leslie Lau, The Malaysian Inside
Mingguan Malaysia, the Sunday edition of the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, appeared to play the race card today in an editorial which accused Perak mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin of being under the thumb of the DAP.
The newspaper, which has nationalist Malay leanings, published an editorial written under the pen name Awang Selamat that criticised Nizar, who is from Pas, for awarding permanent land titles to Chinese new villages.
“What is in question is why such privileges are given to residents of new villages which are generally populated by the Chinese? In fact Chinese independent schools have also been given wide tracts of land of all things to help raise funds. Why is the same status not given to the residents of traditional kampungs? Religious schools are also not given this special attention.”
Utusan Malaysia generally represents the more conservative groups within Umno who often champion the cause of the Malay language and Malay rights.
It has recently been embroiled in a row with the DAP, as the party’s senior parliamentarian and Selangor state executive councillor Teresa Kok was detained for a short while under the Internal Security Act (ISA) based largely on an article in the newspaper suggesting she was biased against Malays.
Kok is now suing the newspaper.
Today, the newspaper hit out at Nizar for his administration’s insistence on going ahead with plans to award land titles to villagers, which was an election promise, despite an attempt by the federal government to block the move.
Awang Selamat, which is the pseudonym frequently used by one of the senior editors at the newspaper, wrote that it was clear that Nizar was using the politics of land to garner support from the non-Malays.
Citing speculation, the newspaper accused Nizar of following the orders of the DAP.
It also asked why retired military and police personnel who used to receive land from previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administrations did not receive such privileges anymore.
“Is he (Nizar) not paying attention to them because he has not got instructions from the DAP?”
