Perkasa dubs Bar Council racist for picking on Utusan
(The Malaysian Insider) – Datuk Ibrahim Ali dubbed the Bar Council racist for picking on Utusan Malaysia for inciting racial hatred, saying today the lawyers’ group should also focus on the Chinese media and others that “insult Islam, Malay Rulers and the Malay community”.
The Perkasa chief’s rant came after the Bar Council joined other groups to condemn Utusan Malaysia for its front-page article on Saturday which claimed that the DAP was conspiring with Christian leaders to take over Putrajaya and abolish Islam as the country’s official religion.
“Why did the Bar Council not urge the police to investigate Chinese media, other bloggers, website and portals, tweets that carry news and statements which insult Islam, Malay Rulers and the Malay community.
“The Bar Council is controlled by a certain race and, of course, its actions are anti-Malay and anti-Islam,” Ibrahim (picture) told The Malaysian Insider.
The Bar Council is a professional body under the Legal Profession Act that runs the Malaysian Bar, which groups all lawyers in the Malay peninsula.
The Umno-owned newspaper has been under heavy scrutiny from both sides of the political divide after it carried the report.
The report, based entirely on unsubstantiated blog postings by several pro-Umno bloggers, said the DAP should be hauled up for sedition for allegedly trying to change the country’s laws to allow a Christian prime minister, pointing to a grainy photograph showing what they described as a secret pact between the opposition party and pastors at a hotel in Penang on Wednesday.
Malaysian Bar president Lim Chee Wee accused Putrajaya yesterday of giving free rein to Utusan Malaysia to publish and promote what he called lies dressed up as news reports and continue to stir up religious fear and unrest.
The lawyer joined a growing choir in urging the authorities to get their priorities in order and immediately investigate reporters and editors in the Umno-owned daily for repeatedly pushing provocative religious rhetoric rather than hauling up Christian leaders over unproven claims.
The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), which represents over 90 per cent of churches nationwide, has also demanded Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak act immediately against Utusan for false reporting and spreading dangerous lies.
“Instead of questioning Utusan Malaysia’s journalistic conduct and ethics, the immediate responses from the ministers in charge of home affairs and communications were to order investigations into the alleged incidents themselves,” Lim said in a statement.
