A top Utusan Malaysia editor has blamed Malaysiakini as the source of today's problems and described the online news portal's editor as “a frustrated media person”.

Zaini Hassan, a senior editor and columnist of the Umno-owned newspaper, said “the problem began with them ( Malaysiakini )” in his speech at the one-day Selangor BN convention in Shah Alam.

NONE "They ( Malaysiakini ) have become popular. But who is really behind them?" asked Zaini.

“The Internet is full of lies and slander. It is also fanning racial sentiments among the races,” he said in his presentation to the 1,500-strong delegates.

Zaini lamented that many young voters who are well-versed with new media believe whatever information that is being transmitted in cyberspace.

“I urge BN to employ friendly bloggers and cybertroopers to circulate pro-BN messages,” he said.

“I would like to also suggest to BN to possibly embrace former enemy bloggers as its cybertroopers,” he said.

Zaini cited an anti-PKR website as an example which both BN and Umno can utilised to attack opposition websites.

Azan controversy

NONE Zaini was involved in the controversy which resulted in Seputeh parliamentarian and Selangor senior executive councillor Teresa Kok being arrested under the Internet Security Act and detained for a week in September 2008.

Kok had since filed a RM30 million defamation suit against Zaini and Utusan claiming that she was defamed in an article published on Sept 10, 2008.

The controversy was sparked by Selangor opposition leader Mohd Khir Toyo, who accused Kok of demanding that volume of ‘azan’ (prayers) from loudspeakers at two mosques - in Puchong and Kota Damansara - be lowered.

The matter was subsequently raised by Zaini in his weekly column ‘Cuit’ but both the mosques and Kok denied the allegation

Ridhuan: Justice, equality misinterpreted

Meanwhile, another controversial Utusan columnist Dr Ridhuan Tee Abdullah said the concept of justice and equality had been misinterpreted by many parties to mean that everything should be shared fairly and equally.

NONE “What it truly means is what the component party leaders of the past such as MIC's VT Sambanthan and MCA's Tan Siew Sin had said - equality is not having the same things,” said Ridhuan, who is also a senior lecturer in Universiti Pertahanan Nasional’s Islamic Civilisation and Research.

“When this country was formed, there was only one race. And this fact has to be respected, you have to respect us (Malays) for that,” he said in delivering a 50-page paper on how non-Malays perceive the Malay political movement, which was reduced to a 10-minute speech.

However Ridhuan, who is a Chinese Muslim, took a softer stand in arguing that Ketuanan Melayu must not be defined as an enslavement of others.