Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam has removed hundreds of comments left on his weblog after his posting on the Selangor centralised pig farm came under fire from readers.

The entry in Bahasa Malaysia was entitled ‘Pig farm, a gift from the elections’ and was posted last Friday.

It prompted 365 readers to leave comments as at 3pm yesterday when Malaysiakini first visited the blog site .

ali rustam and melaka Mohd Ali - who is also Umno vice-president - congratulated Selangor voters including Muslims for voting in the Pakatan Rakyat government, which decided to implement the project originally conceived by Barisan Nasional.

An overwhelming majority criticised Mohd Ali - who joined the bandwagon of bloggers this month - as ‘short-sighted’ and ‘playing up racial sentiments’.

On re-visiting the blog 30 minutes later, Malaysiakini found that the comments had been removed and that the comment-posting function had been disabled. However, a screen capture copy was subsequently obtained.

Contacted for response, Mohd Ali’s press officer Daud Awang said he could only confirm it was the CM’s blog, but claimed he was unaware of what had happened.

In the posting, Mohd Ali described the RM100 million centralised pig farm as another mega- project, just like the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Sepang F1 International Circuit.

“The two mega-projects have made millions of (ringgit in) profit for the Selangor government. After this, they can also make a profit through pig-rearing,” he wrote.

selangor pig farm The CM also said he was disappointed with PAS state executive councillors for agreeing to the project, without taking into account the impact on Muslims, since pigs are deemed forbidden in Islamic teaching.

“The PAS leaders’ action has ‘legalised’ what is forbidden, without worrying about pollution and transmission of diseases from pigs to humans,” he wrote.

Citing the example of pig farms in Malacca , the CM said he had successfully reduced the number of pigs reared in the state and closed two farms.

“The Selangor people should be happy because, very soon, they will receive an election gift of high value, for supporting their parties in the general election,” he added.

Support for Selangor gov't

Soon after the posting was uploaded, readers started to react angrily. Some described his posting as ‘short-sighted’, ‘embarrassing’, ‘disappointing’ and ‘playing up racial sentiments’.

pig farming 080408 The majority said they are supportive of the Selangor government’s move to modernise pig farming, as it will resolve issues related to pollution. Some said non-Muslims have a right to consume pork.

A minority supported Mohd Ali’s view, saying that the state government should be sensitive to the impact of its actions in a multi-racial society.

The RM100 million project has attracted criticism from certain quarters - especially after Malay dailies gave extensive coverage to the issue - after an announcement by Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim that the project would proceed.

Defending the project later, Khalid also said the move was started during the tenure of his predecessor, Dr Mohd Khir Toyo.