A Nov 25 news report quoted Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar as saying that "foreign governments have been reminded that articles which appear in local newspapers do not necessarily reflect the official stand of the Malaysian government".

Syed Hamid was reportedly asked to comment on the allegation that the reason for the summary dismissal of Abdullah Ahmad, the former editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times , last Thursday was that he wrote an article on Saudi Arabia which was deemed to be offensive to that foreign government in the Middle East.

He was also quoted as saying that local newspapers are "fairly independent" and editors are not told what they should or should not write.

However, earlier on Nov 23, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying to the effect that the dismissal was a response to a diplomatic protest received by the Malaysian Foreign Ministry from the Arab Saudi government over that article penned by Abdullah Ahmad.

According to the prime minister, the dismissal "had nothing to do with personal or internal politics".

The inconsistency or contradiction between the reported statements of the prime minister and foreign minister are obvious and clear:

One, if what the foreign minister was quoted as saying is right, then the reported statement attributed to the prime minister earlier must be wrong or untrue.

Conventional practice

In normal circumstance or according to conventional practice of international diplomacy, the reported position (a form of clarification) of the foreign minister should have been conveyed to the Saudi Arabia government immediately after the Malaysian foreign ministry received the latter's diplomatic protest.

It follows that Syed Hamid should have advised the Saudi Arabia government or its diplomatic mission in Kuala Lumpur to re-direct its protest against, or clarification on, or rebuttal to the article, to the New Straits Times or Abdullah Ahmad because they are " free and independent".

All normal and modern diplomatic missions have press, media and information officers to respond directly to free and independent media in the host countries, and there are records of diplomatic missions in Kuala Lumpur responding to news reports that are factually wrong, or commentaries in the media that are detrimental to the interests and images of their respective nations.

Above all, if the reported position of Syed Hamid was taken before last Thursday, then Abdullah Ahmad should not have been dismissed on the ground of Saudi's displeasure and diplomatic protest, as suggested by the prime minister.

What is also noteworthy at this point is whether the diplomatic protest lodged by the Saudi government contains clear demands for action to be taken against Abdullah Ahmad and/or the New Straits Times .

Was the diplomatic protest lodged verbally (informal and not very serious) or in written correspondences or notes (formally and very serious)?

Two, if the reported statement of the prime minister is a true account, then Syed Hamid must be attempting to mislead both Malaysians and foreign governments as to the state of press freedom in Malaysia.

Government mouthpiece

The effect of the prime ministerial statement is that it admits that the New Straits Times is the mouthpiece of the government on, at least, foreign policies, and the conduct and thinking of international relations.

If that is the case, then all other foreign governments could follow the precedence made by the Saudi government and lodge diplomatic protests against any news reports or commentaries published by the New Straits Times that are deemed to be detrimental to their interests and images, instead of instructing their press, media or information officers to deal directly and unofficially with the newspaper.

Seen in the light of that prime ministerial statement, then all the news reports and commentaries in the New Straits Times in recent months calling US President George W Bush "liar" or British Prime Minister Tony Blair "poodle", or "predicting" they would lose the next elections in the US or UK, are logically reflective of the official positions of the Malaysian government.

The negative implication of the statement made by the prime minister on the summary dismissal, if not qualified, clarified or amended, is indeed serious and far-reaching on the conduct of Malaysia's diplomacy and international relations.

It is perhaps for exactly this reason that the foreign minister had to make the statements later that the Malaysian media is "fairly independent" and that editors are not told what they should or should not write.

However, the attempt of the foreign minister to neutralise the effect of the prime ministerial statement seems to have gone overboard and, instead of qualifying, clarifying or amending, has created a sharp contradiction or inconsistency.

Extraordinary Abdullah

It also leads to the confusion of identity or role of the New Straits Times : is it a free and independent newspaper, or a mouthpiece of Umno and the Umno-dominated government on foreign policies and conduct of international relations?

If it is free and independent, Abdullah Ahmad should not have been summarily dismissed. If it is a mouthpiece that must reflect the correct lines, then it cannot be said to be free and independent at all.

A newspaper cannot be free and independent while it must also simultaneously act as the mouthpiece of the ruling party and government. One cannot have the cake and eat it too.

As Abdullah Ahmad is intellectually and politically an extraordinary man, the problem he has created and left behind is equally extraordinary. His successor will need time and extraordinary skills to overcome the identity crisis or the rather "confusing role" of the newspaper.

But that Abdullah Ahmad was summarily dismissed because of his article on Saudi Arabia is only the official explanation. As Part 1 of this analysis has already suggested, many still believe that it has all to do with Umno's internal politicking, power struggle and intrigues.

(Part III to follow)

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM). Wong is a former member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily (now Sin Chew Daily). He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.