Umno Youth fanpage apologises for provocative Facebook post

By Lisa J. Ariffin

August 26, 2012

A screen capture of the posting before it was taken down last Saturday evening.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — Administrators of an Umno Youth fanpage today apologised for its controversial posting on Facebook earlier this month, suggesting that a vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will result in Christianity becoming the country’s official religion.

The fanpage on the popular social networking site had featured a poster that had read: “Jika anda setuju untuk jadikan KRISTIAN sebagai agama rasmi persekutuan Malaysia, teruskan sokongan anda kepada Pakatan Rakyat. God bless you my son.”

[Translation: If you agree to make CHRISTIANITY the official religion of the federation of Malaysia, continue supporting Pakatan Rakyat. God bless you my son.]

“Kami minta maaf secara terbuka kepada semua rakyat atas kesilapan mengeluarkan gambar yang tidak patut pada 17/18 Aug 2012. Admin itu sudah dikeluarkan dari fanpage,” the page’s administrators wrote in a posting late last night, just hours after Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin told the media that he was closing in on the culprit behind the poster.

[Translation: We publicly apologise to all Malaysians over our mistake in publishing inappropriate content on August 17/18. The admin involved has been removed from the fanpage.]

The post, however, was met with mockery from netizens, who saw the apology as a contradiction to Khairy’s statement last week that the wing did not have an official Facebook page.

Khairy had even lodged a police report, claiming that the person who put up the poster with the controversial remarks was “unauthorised” to do so and that the page was not the youth wing’s official Facebook page.

“Khairy cakap akaun palsu... Rupanya akaun betul la nih. Siap buat report polis bagai akaun palsu. Senang-senang je nak bodoh-bodohkan kami ye... Siapa admin yg kena remove tuh?? Cepat dedahkan siapa... Memburukan imej Pemuda Umno...,” Nur Miba commented on the post.

[Translation: Khairy said this is a false account... When in actual fact it is a real account. He even made a police report as though it was a fake account. Think it’s so easy to fool us... Who is the admin who was removed? Reveal him immediately... This tarnishes the image of Umno Youth...]

“Hampeh betul la korang ni. Monyusahkan… tak mengaku, lepas tu mengaku. Bangang,” said Shauqie Kharip.

[Translation: You are all so unreliable. Troublesome... Don’t admit it, then admit it. Stupid.]

If Umno Youth is brought to court over the “unauthorised” Facebook post, it would be a test case for the newly enforced Section 114A of the Evidence Act that has already seen widespread opposition from the public.

Section 114A makes even coffee shops offering a free Wi-Fi service liable for any defamatory or criminal acts of customers using computers on their premises.

The new law creates a presumption that any registered user of network services is presumed to be the publisher of a publication sent from a computer linked to that network service, if he cannot show otherwise.

The Section also provides that any “person whose name, photograph or pseudonym appears on any publication depicting himself as the owner, host, administrator, editor or sub-editor, or who in any manner facilitates to publish or re-publish the publication is presumed to have published or re-published the contents of the publication unless the contrary is proved.”

The controversial Facebook post had appeared to suggest that a vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will catapult Christianity into Islam’s unquestioned position as Malaysia’s dominant religion, showing that faith is still being used to scare off the crucial Malay-Muslim vote in the run-up to national polls.

The picture is a reminder of Malay daily Utusan Malaysia, which last year placed on its front page an unsubstantiated report suggesting that the DAP was conspiring with the Church to install a Christian as prime minister and create a Christian Malaysian state.

It triggered an uproar on the popular social network with some cyber citizens, supporting the statement and others condemning Umno Youth for attempting to fan emotions and religious sentiments between Christians and Muslims on the eve of Aidilfitri, one of the biggest holidays in multicultural Malaysia’s calendar.

PR opposition leaders have also slammed Umno Youth for the incendiary message and demanded that party president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak take action to rein in the wing.

The provocative posting was taken down about 6.30pm last Saturday, after drawing nearly 300 comments on the Facebook page.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/umno-youth-fanpage-apologises-for-provocative-facebook-post/

Government pressed on Tajudin deal after claims by Khairy

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

May 24, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — The government’s confidential settlement of its claims against Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli is under renewed scrutiny after Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin claimed knowledge this week that national asset restructuring company Danaharta did not lose money in the out-of-court deal.

The DAP today demanded answers from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak after Khairy reopened the debate on the controversial sealed settlement by claiming during a televised debate with PKR’s Rafizi Ramli that he had been told by sources that the government had not lost out in the arrangement with Tajudin (picture).

“Datuk Seri Najib Razak must immediately confirm if indeed his Umno Youth chief is telling the truth or is lying to the public over the above scandal. This is especially since it is the first time a BN (Barisan Nasional) politician has claimed that Tan Sri Tajudin paid part or all of his outstanding debt as part of the settlement exercise,” DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said in a statement today.

Khairy had cited “sources” that the former Malaysia Airlines (MAS) chairman may have paid more than the RM589 million owed to Danaharta as a result of the still undisclosed out-of-court settlement.

Pua pointed out that this was despite the fact minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had last year directed all government-linked companies (GLCs) including Danaharta to withdraw all civil suits against Tajudin as both the government and the Finance Ministry had agreed that the cases will be settled out of court.

“Khairy’s claim is completely unbelievable and lacks all credibility given the clandestine manner in which the government has sought to cover up the entire episode and the refusal of any minister to confirm or deny the claim that Danaharta had in fact written off all of Tajudin’s debt,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said.

Danaharta and Tajudin ended their drawn-out legal battle when they settled out of court on February 14 after Putrajaya had directed in August all GLCs to drop civil suits against the former protégé of Tun Daim Zainuddin.

But the terms of the settlement remain confidential between the two parties despite a High Court decision in December 2009 for Tajudin to pay Danaharta RM589.14 million with two per cent interest per annum backdated to January 1, 2006.

Politicians from across the divide have demanded details of the out-of-court settlement between the tycoon and Danaharta be made public, but the government has kept silent so far.

In March Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had also demanded Putrajaya reveal details of the out-of-court settlement reached between one-time national asset management firm Pengurusan Danaharta Bhd (Danaharta) and Tajudin.

The Malaysian Insider had learnt that the 13-man panel made a “nearly unanimous” decision to ask the Finance Ministry and Prokhas, its unit which manages Danaharta’s residual assets, to explain the confidential settlement that was reached on February 14.

Tajudin was a poster boy of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s now discredited policy of nurturing a class of Malay corporate captains on government largesse. He flew high in the 1990s but fared poorly during the Asian financial crisis.

The former prime minister’s policies had been the subject of scrutiny after the Najib administration decided to settle out of court the outstanding RM589 million debt owed by Tajudin from the loan he took to buy MAS in 1994.

The case between Danaharta and the tycoon arose after he executed a facility agreement on July 13, 1994 to borrow RM1.79 billion from a group of syndicated lenders to finance the purchase by him of a 32 per cent stake in MAS.

However, from 1994 to 1998 he failed to service the original loan, causing it to become a non-performing loan (NPL).

In 1998, Danaharta acquired the NPL from the lenders but Tajudin also failed to settle his debts with Danaharta until they were in default of RM1.41 billion as of October 8, 2001.

As of December 31, 2005, the amount outstanding was RM589.14 million and on May 11, 2006, Danaharta and the subsidiaries commenced action to recover the money.

Tajudin alleged in his affidavit that he was directed by Dr Mahathir and Daim in 1994 to buy a controlling stake in MAS to bail out the government.

The businessman claimed that his purchase was a forced “national service”, disguised as an arm’s length commercial deal, because the government wanted to appease the investment community and the public.

Dr Mahathir, however, denied in his autobiography published last March that he and Daim had forced Tajudin to bail out MAS in 1994 for RM1.8 billion, claiming instead that the tycoon was “elated” over his purchase.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/government-pressed-on-tajudin-deal-after-claims-by-khairy/