Zam irked that The Star is using Malays to attack Malays
Former chief editor says The Star is hiding behind the 25 Eminent Malays to launch attacks against Malays and Muslims in the country.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Former chief editor of Utusan Malaysia, Zainuddin Maidin, also known as Zam, has said the only reason the mainstream newspaper The Star was eager to give media coverage to the 25 Eminent Malays was so it could hide behind the group and use Malays to attack other Malays and Islam.
“It would not be surprising if the reason why The Star is promoting the 25 Eminent Malays is because of their own hidden motive, as the champion of non-Malay ultra liberals, extremists and bigots, to use Malays to malign other Malays and Islam.”
Commenting on the Malay group’s spokesman, Zam said Noor Farida was a Malay ultra-liberalist who showed a complete disregard to Muslim and Malay sensitivities because she was more concerned about projecting herself in the same circles as non-Malay liberals and secularists.
Zam said The Star was emboldened about making use of the 25 Eminent Malays because the Home Affairs Ministry would not deem Noor’s statements as provocative or seditious in regard to Malays and Islam simply because she herself was a Malay Muslim of high standing in the government and society.
Zam said if such statements were uttered by a non-Muslim or someone from DAP, the government would immediately have considered it provocative and seditious.
Particularly grating to Zam’s nerves was an interview Noor, a former ambassador to the Netherlands, gave The Star on December 14 in which she was asked about a surau in Mersing, Johor that was demolished because it had been used by Buddhists for meditation.
In the interview Noor answered, “These people (Muslims) need to read the history of the Prophet. When a Christian delegation visited Madinah, He allowed them to pray in the mosque. Why can’t we follow the Prophet?”
In countering her statement, Zam retorted, “We have to remember that Muslims and non-Muslims have lived together in this country for a very long time, having mutual respect for one another and that each has their own houses of worship. Muslims pray at mosques, the Chinese at temples, the Hindus in their “kuil” and the Christians at churches”, Zam wrote in a blog entry.
