Nazri Aziz PISSES ON Utusan Malaysia Editors aka Awang Selamat in Open-Letter

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Quote

"... Untuk menjadi seorang RAKYAT MALAYSIA, TIDAK semestinya ANTI-Melayu. (To be a MALAYSIAN does not necessarily mean to be ANTI-Malay.)

Mengapa tidak boleh saya menyifatkan ANDA sebagai RASIS, apabila anda kelihatan kecewa dengan pujian dan respons-respons positif yang saya terima daripada bukan Melayu dan cuba untuk meletakkannya sebagai negatif terhadap diri saya. (How can I not dub you a racist when you seem to be upset with the praises and positive responses I got from the non-Malays and attempt to put it as something negative on me).

Adakah hanya komen dan pujian orang Melayu perlu diambil kira dan yang lain-lain pula diketepikan, atas alasan yang sendiri yang tahu. (Are the comments and praises of the Malays [the] only [ones that] count, and the rest can go to you-know-where?)

Anda mempunyai perjalanan yang begitu jauh untuk menerima bahawa Malaysia adalah sebuah negara milik rakyat Malaysia yang terdiri daripada semua kaum, yang menzahirkan kesetiaan mereka kepada tanah lahir mereka ini. (You have a long way to go in accepting that Malaysia is a country belonging to Malaysians of all races who swear their loyalty to the land of their birth.)

Yang perlu anda ingat sepanjang masa ialah bukannya apa yang anda fikirkan perlu, tetapi apa yang khalayak membuat tanggapan tentang anda. (What you have to bear in mind is not what you think you are but what the public perceive of you .)

Sedih untuk diperkatakan di sini bahawa bukan Melayu menganggap Utusan sebagai rasis. (Sad to say, the NON-Malays perceive Utusan as racist, period.)

Dan, itu sebabnya saya membawa isu SAYA RAKYAT MALAYSIA TERLEBIH DAHULU dan orang Melayu kemudian, sekiranya anda tidak faham apa sebabnya. (And that is why I brought up the issue of Malaysian first and Malay next, in case you don’t understand why.)

Apa pun Awang, saya tidak tahu siapa anda sebenarnya. (By the way, I still do not know who YOU are, Awang?)..."
-Dato Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz

Surat dibawah ditulus oleh Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Tan Sri Abdul Aziz untuk membalas tulisan Awang Selamat yang bertajuk “Lagi Jawapan buat Nazri Aziz” yang diterbitkan oleh Mingguan Malaysia hari ini.

Daripada: Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz
Padang Rengas
26 September 2010

Kepada: Saudara, tidak kira siapa anda sebenarnya,

Sudah pasti saya akan respons kepada rencana tulisan saudara.

Jika kita percaya pada kebebasan bersuara, biar diketahui bahawa ia bukan sahaja diberikan kepada akhbar, tetapi juga kepada orang perseorangan.

Dalam menggunakan hak saya untuk membalas dan untuk mempertahankan diri saya, sila jangan membuat tafsiran bahawa saya cuba untuk mengelak kritikan terhadap diri saya. Saya sememangnya berhadapan dengan kritikan-kritikan sejak sekian lama pembabitan saya dalam politik dan saya masih berdiri di mana saya berada sekarang.

Saudara Utusan menulis bahawa dia menerima banyak SMS untuk menjustifikasikan yang dia menerima sokongan terhadap artikel mengenai diri saya (minggu lalu). Saya tidak mahu bercakap mengenai SMS dan emel-emel yang saya terima kerana dia tidak berupaya untuk mengesahkannya, tetapi saya pasti dia juga telah dimaklumkan bahawa komen-komen yang dinukilkan oleh orang ramai yang membaca portal, menunjukkan saya juga menerima banyak sokongan daripada rakyat, sebagaimana dia mendakwa menerima dalam jumlah yang banyak.

Mengapa tidak boleh saya menyifatkan anda sebagai rasis apabila anda kelihatan kecewa dengan pujian dan respons-respons positif yang saya terima daripada bukan Melayu dan cuba untuk meletakkannya sebagai negatif terhadap diri saya, khususnya yang datang daripada Kit Siang dan Guan Eng.

Dengan berbuat demikian, anda dengan jelas meletakkan diri anda sebagai, kita orang Melayu, menentang bukan Melayu. Adakah hanya komen dan pujian orang Melayu perlu diambil kira dan yang lain-lain pula diketepikan, atas alasan yang sendiri yang tahu.

Anda mempunyai perjalanan yang begitu jauh untuk menerima bahawa Malaysia adalah sebuah negara milik rakyat Malaysia yang terdiri daripada semua kaum, yang menzahirkan kesetiaan mereka kepada tanah lahir mereka ini.

Sememangnya saya adalah betul apabila bercakap mengenai pengalaman sifar anda dalam politik kerana anda menulis “apabila Melayu tidak mengundi”.

Biar saya menyebut bahawa analisis anda menunjukkan bahawa “apabila BUKAN Melayu tidak mengundi”, kesannya adalah sama.

Anda tidak faham langsung apa yang cuba saya terangkan iaitu “apabila majoriti rakyat Malaysia tidak mengundi”, maka kita semua berhadapan dengan masalah.

Salah satu perkara yang paling buruk untuk dilakukan ialah memberi alasan-alasan terhadap kegagalan anda dengan mengatakan yang lain juga gagal berbuat demikian. Ini adalah sikap mengaku kalah dan pastinya menganggap sebagai satu takdir.

Mengapa tidak anda melihat di sekitar anda dan saya pasti bahawa anda boleh mengenal pasti akhbar-akhbar yang telah berjaya dan menggunakannya sebagai contoh untuk berusaha menaikkan bilangan pembaca akhbar anda. Saya suka mengikuti akhbar Utusan yang lama dan saya mahu anda bekerja keras ke arah menjadikananya akhbar yang gemilang semula.

Saya amat gembira dengan sokongan anda kepada Umno dan Barisan Nasional (BN) dan bagi memastikan kami boleh berjaya. Saya mahu anda menunaikan apa yang anda perkatakan dan menyokong dasar 1 Malaysia, yang merupkan ilham Perdana Umno dan Pengerusi BN. Beliau berusaha dengan bersungguh-sungguh untuk menang dalam pilihan raya umum akan datang, maka janganlah mencetuskan suasana yang sukar buat beliau.

Awang tidak perlu memberitahu saya mengenai kedudukan Utusan sebagai sebuah Institusi Melayu dan perjuangannya sama seperti Umno. Sebelum anda menyertai Utusan, saya telah berada dalam Pemuda Umno, bermula sebagai anggota Exco sehingga sebagai Timbalan Ketua dan sebagai Pemangku Ketua Pemuda Umno pusat untuk satu tempoh selama satu setengah tahun. Ini adalah bukti kelayakan saya.

Jika saya berada sebagai seorang pemimpin Malaysia pada hari ini, banyak kredit harus dihulurkan kepada Tun Mahathir. Kerana beliau saya berada di sini seperti hari ini dan banyak terhutang kepada beliau. Saya hanya mahu “sifu” saya terus membantu saya dan kepada yang lain-lain agar menjadi pemimpin yang baik di negara bertuah ini dan tidak membezakan negara ini hanya kerana kaum, kepercayaan, agama dan gender.

Untuk menjadi seorang rakyat Malaysia tidak semestinya anti-Melayu. Saya berharap yang ini akan difahami oleh semua.

Akhirnya, dalam usaha menyebarkan mesej kepada publik sebagaimana didakwa oleh Awang, adalah penting mesej-mesej anda keluar dengan jelas dan terang buat mereka. Ini kerana anda tidak boleh dipanggil setiap kali untuk membuat penjelasan.

Yang perlu anda ingat sepanjang masa ialah bukannya apa yang anda fikirkan perlu, tetapi apa yang khalayak membuat tanggapan tentang anda. Sedih untuk diperkatakan di sini bahawa bukan Melayu menganggap Utusan sebagai rasis. Dan, itu sebabnya saya membawa isu saya rakyat Malaysia terlebih dahulu dan orang Melayu kemudian, sekiranya anda tidak faham apa sebabnya.


Apa pun Awang, saya tidak tahu siapa anda sebenarnya.

Related Article

English Translation of Dato Seri Aziz's Open Letter

Nazri responds to Utusan Malaysia’s Awang Selamat

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The following is an open-letter by Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Tan Sri Abdul Aziz in response to a Mingguan Malaysia editorial today entitled, “Lagi Jawapan buat Nazri Aziz”,by Awang Selamat.

FROM: Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz
PADANG RENGAS,
September 26, 2010

To: Mr Whoever You Are in Utusan Malaysia

Of course I will respond to your article.

If we believe in the freedom of speech, let it be known that it is not only given to the Press but also to the individual.

In exercising my right of reply and to defend myself, please do not interpret it to mean I am stifling criticism against me. Far from it; I have been criticised all my years in politics and I am still here where I am.

Mr Utusan said that he got a lot of SMS to justify that he received support for his article on me. I do not want to talk about the SMS and emails that I received because he will not be able to verify them, but I am sure he has also been informed that comments made by ordinary people reading the portal have shown that I, too, have support from public just as he claimed he has — if not more.

How can I not dub you a racist when you seem to be upset with the praises and positive responses I got from the non-Malays and attempt to put it as something negative on me, especially those coming from (Lim) Kit Siang and (Lim) Guan Eng?

By doing this you have clearly defined your position as “we Malays against you non-Malays”.

Are the comments and praises of the Malays [the] only [ones that] count, and the rest can go to you-know-where? You have a long way to go in accepting that Malaysia is a country belonging to Malaysians of all races who swear their loyalty to the land of their birth.

I am right about your zero experience in politics because you wrote “When the Malays don’t vote”.

Well, let me tell you our analysis has shown that “When the NON-Malays don’t vote”, the effect is the same.

You have never understood what I have been trying to say, that the most important point is that “When the majority of Malaysians don’t vote” then we all are in trouble.

One of the worst things to do is to offer excuses for your failure by saying others failed too. This is a defeatist attitude and a sure recipe for doom. Why don’t you look around? I am sure you can find other papers which succeed and use them as incentive to work in increasing your readership. I like the Utusan of old and I want you to work hard towards making this paper great again.

I read with extreme happiness your support for Umno and Barisan Nasional and to ensure that we will succeed. I want you to walk your talk and support the 1 Malaysia policy which is the brainchild of the President of Umno and Chairman of Barisan Nasional. He is working very, very hard to win the next General Election, so please don’t make it difficult for him.

Awang does not need to tell me about how Utusan is a Malay institution and that its struggle is the same with Umno. Long before you joined Utusan, I have been in Umno Youth — right from being appointed exco member to the post of deputy leader — and for one-and-a-half years acting leader of Umno Youth Malaysia. That is my credential.

If I am a Malaysian leader today, a lot of credit must be given to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. I hold him responsible for what I am today and I owe him a lot. I just want my “sifu” to continue to help me and the others to be good leaders of this blessed country of ours and not to divide us by race, creed, cult and gender.

To be a Malaysian does not necessarily mean to be anti-Malay. I hope this will be understood by all.

Finally, being involved in the dissemination of messages to public as claimed by Awang, it is very important that your messages come out loud and clear to them. At the end of the day you cannot be called upon to explain all the time. What you have to bear in mind is not what you think you are but what the public perceive of you.

Sad to say, the non-Malays perceive Utusan as racist, period. And that is why I brought up the issue of Malaysian first and Malay next, in case you don’t understand why.

By the way, I still do not know who YOU are, Awang?
- Dato Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz

Journalists’ Union demands Utusan Malaysia Abolish UNETHICAL Policies

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National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president Hata Wahari demanded today that Utusan Malaysia abolish editorial policies which go against “journalistic ethics” in order to tackle a severe drop in its readership circulation.

The newly-minted union president claimed that the Umno-owned daily’s existing policies had resulted in a sharp decline in the paper’s circulation in recent years.

Hata said in a statement today:

“NUJ Malaysia is worried with the decline in mainstream newspapers’ circulation especially Utusan Malaysia’s. Utusan’s total circulation has dropped from 213,000 to 169,000 ( minus 21 per cent) between the years 2005-2009 as released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) on September 10 last year.

We feel that the drop in Utusan’s overall circulation is due to several factors, most of them being the policies that are currently adopted by the chief editor and senior editors in Utusan. These policies are against the ethics of journalism.

Utusan practises biased reporting whereby it only reports positively if it involves BN while all negative reports will be directed towards PR and the states which the opposition coalition governs.

The newspaper also does not give an opportunity for an accused to answer certain allegations by choosing not to publish it. In this matter, Utusan adopts an approach where it does not publish statements made by political parties or individuals who criticise the newspaper.

Utusan Malaysia only publishes news for the benefit of one race, causing Chinese, Indians as well as other Bumiputeras to no longer be interested in reading the newspaper even though they can read and write in Bahasa Malaysia. Utusan as a newspaper has to take into consideration the needs of other races.

If these policies continue to be implemented, Utusan’s circulation will continue to drop in the future. Perhaps one day Utusan Malaysia will be reduced to be inserted within the pages of Kosmo, since comparatively the Malay tabloid has been experiencing a steady increase year after year.”

Hata, who is also an Utusan journalist, claimed that the Malay daily’s reporting was “biased” in nature, saying that positive coverage revolved around Barisan Nasional (BN) while negative reports were specifically reserved for Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

The NUJ president cited the example of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s responses to Utusan columnist Awang Selamat which had not been carried by Utusan.

Utusan, in continuing its attacks against Nazri, claimed yesterday that the minister’s criticisms against the Umno-owned daily had been “unfounded” and unbecoming of an Umno minister.

In its weekend edition Mingguan Malaysia, Awang Selamat slammed Nazri for questioning the daily’s agenda and for pointing out that Utusan’s readership circulation had dwindled over recent years while online news portals were attracting more readership.

The columnist, whose pseudonym is used by Utusan editors, maintained that Utusan was a “Malay institution,” and that the paper’s agenda was in the national interest, dismissing Nazri’s recent allegations that the daily had become “racist” in its reporting.

Awang also defended Utusan’s drop in circulation yesterday, claiming that it was a trend that was currently being experienced by many other newspapers in Asia.

The columnist also claimed that online news portals were “feeding off” news reports and articles from Utusan without the paper’s permission, and that without the issues being reported by Utusan, these online news portals would lose their readership value.

But Hata maintained today that Utusan was only publishing news for the needs of one race, saying that this had inadvertently caused non-Malay readers to stop reading the Malay daily.

Hata dismissed Utusan’s claims that its online readership had increased, claiming that an increase in Utusan Online did not mean an increase in revenue because the bulk of Utusan Online’s profits was obtained through Internet advertisements.

The NUJ president painted a bleak picture of Utusan’s future.