CNA documentary ‘A Fractured Nation’ is one-sided, says Salleh

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak described yesterday’s Channel News Asia’s documentary entitled “A Fractured Nation” as biased because it portrayed a bad image of Malaysia based just on the opinions from opposition sources.

He said the report did not reflect the real situation in the country and CNA should have came up with a balanced report by interviewing those who were also members of the ruling party.

“The report is clearly one-sided because it only highlights negative things about Malaysia, and CNA interviews only those who are members of the opposition. Channel News Asia’s report regarding the Malaysia Day rally is unfair, biased and regrettable, and should be rectified.

“CNA should take into account the views of all parties as the report seems to portray our country is facing a lot of problems, which is not all true. This report clearly shows that they have a point of view or an angle to hurt our country,” he said.

Salleh was speaking to reporters after attending the distribution of sacrificial meat in conjunction with the Eid Al-Adha at Miles 7, Kesapang, near here today.

The CNA reports that Malaysia Day was supposed to be an occasion to strengthen unity of all Malaysians but was allegedly taken advantage by certain parties to sow discord and disunity through the protests with a racial overtone.

In rebuttal, Salleh said the foreign media were determined to spoil the good name of Malaysia with reports based on dubious sources.

“They try to create the impression that the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) has made many mistakes and even took advantage of the situation — where our Prime Minister is now in New York (on official duty) by publishing news that could discredit Malaysia, particularly the Prime Minister in the international media,” he said.

He opined that the negative reports were initiated not only by the outsiders but also a certain group of people in the country.

Salleh said the majority of the people and leaders of the country had expressed their full support to the Prime Minister, saying “such acts divulge the futile path”.

“The issues they raised on 1MDB and RM2.6 billion political donation have been answered…The Prime Minister has said 1MDB’s account must be audited and a report was sent to the Committee of Public Accounts Malaysia (PAC)… So let PAC makes the investigation.

“The government has also plans on 1MDB’s rationalisation (recovery) and we believe within six months, these problems can be solved,” he said.

On the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) which was channelled into Najib’s personal bank accounts, Salleh said  Malaysian Anti-Corruption (MACC) had said it came from donors as a political donation.

Salleh said so far there was no law in the country that “bar anyone from collecting money for political purposes”.

MACC was quoted as saying in a statement recently that it knew the identity of the donor who had banked in RM2.6 billion into Najib’s personal account.