Rewcastle: JAKIM Najib’s tool to mislead Malaysians
Sarawak Report in personal danger from people who have been cynically and deliberately misled during Friday sermons.
(Free Malaysia Today) – It was demeaning to Malaysians for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to suggest that a few articles written by “one foreign white woman” could seriously undermine the power and authority of the state. “What has undermined Malaysia and was now threatening to ‘topple’ things was the canker of unrestrained corruption which has eaten away at the authority of the state, the government’s moral authority and legitimacy.”
The immediate danger comes from the so-called Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) where Islam was being usurped to use the Friday sermons in mosques as a propaganda tool in the arsenal of the government. “The religion is being used to convince Muslims that foreigners are insulting Malaysia and its leaders.”
“JAKIM’s argument, according to a Singapore Channel News Asia report, is that Muslims who raised the issue of 1MDB would be making themselves victims of foreign powers.”
Islam, she pointed out, denounces theft, deceit, and perversions of justice. “These are the issues being examined by the forces of law and order in Malaysia today.”
“Instead of suing us as he vowed, Najib is sermonizing us. We believe such deeply irresponsible tactics have placed the Sarawak Report in personal danger from people who have been cynically and deliberately misled.”
How is it that the Sarawak Report — and not JAKIM — was a danger to Malaysia, asked Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the Editor of the UK-based whistleblowing website the Sarawak Report, in an email listing her complaints in exercising her Right of Reply. “Is it not Najib himself that has produced that danger by mismanaging himself into this humiliating situation?”
The “issue at hand in Malaysia” was the investigation into grand-scale corruption and theft of public money through 1MDB and not obsession with her complexion, said Rewcastle. “It’s also a matter of related public money going into the account of the Prime Minister.”
The use of such monies to assist in illegally influencing the outcome of a democratic election, she added, is an issue that should concern all.
Najib’s “I value loyal people over smart people” statement was a disgraceful admission, said Rewcastle. “It’s a disgraceful admission from a man whose duty it is to ensure that Malaysians get public servants who are of the highest quality.”
“Najib has cynically and openly admitted that his only criterion was to appoint people who will worry about protecting him, not the rest of Malaysia.”
She wonders whether the Sarawak Report, a blog, has emerged as a threat to Najib because it was protected by the Rule of Law and press freedom in another country, and therefore considered so dangerous to him. “Is it because he cannot bully us like the many politicians, journalists, senior civil servants and members of the public in his own country?”
He has started rounding up many of them this week, she noted, and throwing them into cells, just for raising the issue of stolen billions through 1MDB.
“So, why this sudden hypocrisy against ‘white’ foreigners,” she asked in the email. “Najib has shown no concerns about employing at vast public expense Paul Stadlen, a ‘white’ UK national, and his ‘white’ colleagues who wrote his press releases announcing the ‘reshuffle’ last week.”
