Police question Harakahdaily over Mat Indera issue
The police have taken statements from three Harakahdaily journalists over an article relating to the Mat Indera controversy.
The police have taken statements from Harakahdaily journalists over an article relating to the Mat Indera controversy.
Chief editor Zulkili Sulong (
left in photo
) said two police officers from the Tun HS Lee police station arrived about 11am to interview editor Azmi Yusof and news editor Mohd Nazri Abdullah.
The two police officers, an ASP and a sergeant, interviewed the duo on an article titled ‘ Mat Indera: Umno guris hati rakyat Johor ’ (Mat Indera: Umno hurting the feelings of Johoreans).
According to Zulkifli, the article was published on the PAS party organ website on Sept 5.
Initially, police also wanted to question the portal’s chief editor, but then decided against it.
This may be because there was no need of that for the time being, Mohd Nazri said when contacted by Malaysiakini .
“They only wanted to find out the source of their story and who is responsible for it,” the news editor said.
He added that the police were interested to know if there were any additions to the facts published or if the article was written based on suppositions.
“We gave them our cooperation and defended the report,” Mohd Nazri said, explaining that the investigation was pursuant to a police report lodged on the said article.
Among others, it reviewed a book published by the Yayasan Warisan Johor (YWJ) and quoted PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu as defending his earlier remark that Mat Indera was the real hero when he allegedly led the attack on the Bukit Kepong police beat in 1950.
The investigation into the article, which had no byline, was focused on two paragraphs quoted from the Pengukir Nama Johor book and alleged negative perceptions about the police in Bukit Kepong.
One of the paragraphs in the Harakah article asked if Mat Indera was a traitor or a hero, quoting the YWJ book’s biography of the Malay independence activist’s life.
The other one stated that while Mat Indera ordered the attack on the Bukit Kepong police station, the exact order given was only to apprehend several police officers who were drunk and gambled on the eve of Chinese New Year.
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