Stay ‘anti-Malay’ and risk same fate as McDs, ex-minister warns The Star
(The Star) – Leading English newspaper The Star could face the same boycott as the one waged on McDonald’s outlets nationwide if it continues with its alleged anti-Malay and anti-Islam stance, former information minister Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin warned today.
Zainuddin noted that the month-long McDonald’s boycott, which was started by local Malay-Muslim organisations due to the popular fast food joint’s alleged links to Israel, has badly affected the company’s sales volume.
This, he said, shows that the Malays currently have better purchasing power than before and any concerted effort by the community to boycott a brand or product could deal a smarting blow to the targeted companies.
“This can happen … to The Star itself if it shows an anti-Malay and anti-Islam attitude by mocking the Malays and Muslims as extremists and racists for defending the sovereignty of the constitution,” said the former group chief editor for Malay daily Utusan Malaysia in a blog post.
Zainuddin’s comments today comes following an opinion piece published last month in The Star by its group managing director and CEO Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai who said that those participating in the anti-Israel boycotts were only hurting their fellow Malaysians.
Zainuddin also claimed that The Star had defended the newly-formed coalition Negara-Ku in its “Brave Views, Bold Ideas” campaign even when the Registrar of Societies (RoS) purportedly banned the group for its “confusing” name.
“This is the image of The Star, which hides behind MCA and several Malay faces. Every Malay and Muslim must read and scrutinise it with this awareness,” he added.
The RoS has not banned Negara-Ku, however, and only probed it last week after a police report was lodged to claim the coalition is “illegal”.
Zainuddin’s post today is the latest in a series of attacks against the MCA-owned paper.
On Tuesday, the former minister criticised The Star for allowing University of Malaya (UM) law lecturer Assoc Prof Dr Azmi Sharom to be one of its long-time columnists.
Azmi was charged under the Sedition Act 1948 on Tuesday for uttering an allegedly seditious claim that the events during the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis were “legally wrong”.
Malaysians began taking part in anti-Israel boycotts after a list of products and companies purportedly with ties to Israel’s Zionist regime was circulated through social media. Many of the firms, however, only made the list because of now-debunked hoaxes and obsolete links.
In a previous interview with Malay Mail Online, McDonald’s said there have been 50 hostile incidents involving their abuse of harassment of their staff, and property damage to its outlets.
