DEMOCRATIC ACTION PARTY

Media Statement

by DAP National Chairman Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, 9th September 2001:

Bernama must apologise or prove that it has not perpetrated the biggest hoax in the history of Malaysian journalism with its international "scoop" of the report on Malaysia by a phantom "influential American group", the Washington-based American Defence Council

On Friday, Bername scored its second international "scoop" in three weeks, when its office in Washington "obtained" an exclusive copy of a report on Malaysia by "an influential American group", the American Defence Council, entitled "Special Report for Foreign Policy LAs" alleged to have been distributed to all aides of the United States Congressmen in Capitol Hill.

Does the "influential American group", the American Defence Council, exist or is it a pure concoction/figment of the imagination and the second international scoop by Bernama in three weeks the biggest hoax ever perpetrated in the history of Malaysian journalism using a phantom organisation?

The journalistic honour, credibility and reputation of Bernama, national and international, are at stake and Bernama must prove that it has not perpetrated the biggest hoax in the history of Malaysian journalism using a non-existent, phantom organisation.

It is significant and no coincidence that Bernama did not carry or advert to my media statement yesterday, which pointed out that nobody in Washington seems to have heard or known of the existence the American Defence Council and that it does not even have a website, although Bernama had described it as "an influential American group".

I said yesterday that an American lobby group which does not even maintain a website cannot but be a very fringe outfit, and in this connection, I should make a correction as I was being unfair as in the United States, even the "very fringe outfits" also have their websites - which would relegate the American Defence Council to the most remote outer fringes of the "very fringe outfits" in the US if it is not a phantom organisation altogether.

Bernama should give Malaysians all the relevant details of the "influential American group", its history, influence, galaxy of personalities and moving lights, why it hailed the American Defence Council as "an influential American group" or it should apologise to Malaysians for perpetrating the biggest hoax in the history of Malaysian journalism. If the American Defence Council is a phantom creature, Bernama should reveal the true identity of the writer of the so-called "Special Report for Foreign Policy LAs" on Malaysia.

Is the Bernama correspondent in Washington or some other Malaysian source the author of this report which described Malaysia as "the most politically and democratically stable nation in Asia" in spite of the country's heterogeneous society and warned of the danger posed by PAS to the Malaysian democracy and the "inseparable" hope and political future of both countries "for the promotion and spread of peace, democracy and tolerance throughout all of the Asian region" currently "endangered by the growing threat to Malaysia's democratic institutions by religious fundamentalists, militants and extremists"?

Lim Kit Siang

Ref:

The New Straits Times, 08 Sept 01, p1:

Malaysia is "most politically, democratically stable in Asia"

KUALA LUMPUR, Fri. - An influential American group in a special report to United States Congressman, has described Malaysia as "most politically and democratically stable nation in Asia: in spite of the country's heterogeneous society and warned of the danger by PAS to Malaysian democracy.

"Its (Malaysia's) political future is inseperable from our hope for the promotion and spread of peace, democracy and tolerance throughout all of the Asian region," the Washington-based American Defence Council said in its report entitled "Special Report for Foreign Policy LAs". The report was distributed to all aides of the US Congressmen in Capital Hill.

Calling itself an authorised programme of the American Taxpayers Alliance, it said Malaysia lay squarely at the significant trade routes that link the Middle East (West Asia) and the Far East.

"All of this is endangered by the growing threat to Malaysia's democracy by a religious fundamentalists, militants and extremists," it said.

It said these groups shared a profound hostility to Malaysia's inclusion of women and minorities in senior positions of state responsibility as a longstanding policy of toleration and embrace of the country's ethnic and social diversity.

The report called PAS "the best organised of the reactionaries opposed to a modern state based on the politics of tolerance, diversity and inclusion".

"This organisation's (PAS) publicly espoused chauvinism toward women is equalled only by its apparent condescending and patronising attitude with regard to non-Muslims in its political ideology to create a theocratic state in Malaysia.

"This presents real challenges in a society whose 58 per cent Malay-Muslim majority leaves approximately 42 per cent of the population divided among the non-Muslim ethnic Chinese and Indians who have rights as citizens," it said.

The group singled out remarks by Trengganu Mentri Besar and PAS deputy president, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in an interview with a "friendly reporter" as causing great concern among non-Muslim and Muslim Malaysians wishing to see continuance of the Malaysian democratic traditions and protection of the rights of all Malaysians.

"Seemingly oblivious or singlemindedly ignoring the multi-ethnic reality in Malaysia, the chief minister (Mentri Besar), in the interview, reiterated PAS's intent to institute a theocratic state in a region characterised by ethnic deprivations, disputes, instability and political turmoil.

"While PAS supported the inclusion of gender equality in the Malaysian Constitution recently, atelling demonstration of the PAS' latent and uncompromising hardline and reactionary character is Awang's (Abdul Hadi) response to the charge that his party denies women their rights," it said.

The report said that Abdul Hadi had submitted in the June interview that after 1980, the PAS leadership decided that there should not be any more women candidates (to contest in elections).

PAS leaders such as Abdul Hadi "seem wilfully blind and in denial of the reality of women's contribution to the social-econ9omic development of their family and the state.

"Hadi Awang and his colleagues also seem to ignore the dynamics of democratic governance while at the same time exploiting the democratic process on the issues of race and religion for their narrow perspective and principles."

The group concluded by saying that the contest for Malaysia's future was a choice between a forward-looking state characterised by toleration, blessed by prosperity and devoted to democracy on the one hand, or a theocratic regime helmed by a group of clerics whose rule was grounded on their claim to know God's will on temporal issues and managementn of state, their consequent right to lay down the laws and to decide on the rights and status of women and non-Muslim minorities.

"The signs of intolerance are there and proven in their acts and intentions. These signs of similar intolerance towards others are proven by events and its consequences in Iran and Afghanistan in the last two decades.

"We ignore these ominious signs at out own peril,"it added - Bernama.