YOURSAY ‘If they had been actually repentant they would have made that apology early on and this case would have been closed long ago.'

Chamil Wariya, Utusan apologise to Teresa Kok

your say Telestai!: Malaysian Press Institute chairperson Chamil Wariya, ordinarily you would have sued Utusan Malaysia for what they did but you did not do so. Please tell us why?

Kee Thuan Chye: What Chamil says now is in direct contrast to what he said in 2008 when the case broke out.

This is what he said about that provocative story, 'Politik Baru YB J' , in an exclusive interview with The Nut Graph : "Generally, the cerpen is to enrich the Malaysian literary world, especially with regard to political short stories, which are lacking at the moment.

"So what I am trying to do is use my little knowledge on Malaysian politics to enlighten Malaysians through short stories. In 'Politik Baru YB J', indirectly, I just want to share my thoughts that racial politics, if you take it to the very extreme, is bad for Malaysia."

He did not in any way hint that Utusan had distorted his cerpen. He acknowledged it as his own work. Now he is saying something completely different.

Chamil and Utusan should also apologise to me for mentioning my book ‘March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up' in the article and making insinuations about it.

Free and Fair Election: So who's financing all these payouts? Utusan Malaysia can slander and character-assassinate Selangor exco and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok back in 2008 to score points for Umno at that time.

Four years later, they apologise and pay a fine. The point is, Umno knows it is not about the money. They can pay out RM50,000 easily but to character assassinate Teresa at that time was more important.

Someone should make a compilation of all the payouts and apologies that Utusan has made out over the years and distribute them in kampung areas where the village folk are still naive.

And what has the Home Ministry done with a newspaper publisher that writes false accusations and slanders repeatedly?

Doc: Shocking! Utusan, the mouthpiece of the all-powerful and supreme Umno, has apologised to Teresa Kok. What is the world coming to?

Anonymous #19098644: Tell a lie first and then apologise later. This is what Utusan Malaysia, Mingguan Malaysia and the whole Umno media do.

If they had been actually repentant of the wrong, they would have made that apology early on and this case would have been closed long ago. They just got cornered and had no way out and this was the most cost-effective option.

Right now, the Penang Umno Youth head is spreading lies and saying Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is corrupt, but when challenged he has no proof. In a few years' time, we will hear another apology.

To stop all this nonsense, the people must decide - do they want more of it? If ‘yes', vote the BN. If they want to stop this, then vote Pakatan Rakyat.

The bottom line is we get what we deserve - a corrupt and decadent government - because enough Malaysians have voted for BN in successive elections.

Baiyuensheng: It's so easy to make an apology and pay RM50,000 for slandering. That's because the harm has already been done and people don't read apologies.

The malicious intent and ill-feeling that the 2008 Utusan article was trying to create succeeded, and those were etched on the readers' minds. Apologies don't stick that much.

Anonymous #07443216: I don't for a moment swallow what Chamil and Utusan said before the court.

These are third-class writers and publishers and they are lying through their teeth after being caught red-handed. They always try to give flimsy and ridiculous excuses. Utusan is nothing but journalism from the swill.

Abasir: Utusan represents the crookedness of Umno and its leaders. It is essentially racist, vile in its deliberate twisting of facts and desperate enough to cause strife. Any apology from it is worthless since it is unrepentant.

Not Confused: The editors and journalists on the rag Utusan are the lowest of the low in the field of journalism. Their standing in the international field of journalism is less than zero.

With bigoted and tainted journalists and editors like this, there will never be any international recognition of the professional status of Malaysian journalists.

PM Najib Abdul Razak keeps droning on about how excellent Malaysia is in so many fields, but he doesn't really live in the the real world, just some fluffy Walter Mitty world of his own.

The journalists here just fawn over him, hoping that they will earn some crumbs from the table of plenty in BN.

Paul Warren: Utusan staff must feel like total idiots. If they don't then they all must be idiots. They work so hard for the company to make money and yet the company ends up paying to their enemies much more than their own incomes.

Are they working for their shareholders or are they working for most of the time DAP and PKR leaders? After all, it is they who have the last laugh when Utusan happily pays them all these compensation.

FellowMalaysian: It took four long years for justice to prevail and only after Teresa Kok took the appropriate action to sue.

RM50,000 is a pittance for the humiliation and sufferings she had to endured at the inglorious mockery thrown at her by Utusan's portrayal.

Chamil claimed his work was plagarised. But he made no complain before the beginning of the trial. In fact, he collaborated with Utusan then and tried to clobber Kok as well. Chamil deserves the finger.

YF: If Chamil is truly sincere and has a conscience, he should be writing stories based on facts such as the Scorpene submarine scandal, pregnant Mongolian women blown up by C4, missing immigration records, "thrown out of building" interrogations, cows living in condos and a whole lot of bestseller materials that would make any author envious of him.

Only this time, these books will be classified as non-fiction.

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