Apologise for bill report, Umno rep tells Utusan
After days of reports questioning the controversial Johor Housing and Property Board Bill 2014, Utusan Malaysia has come under fire inside the Johor state assembly, from an Umno assemplyperson.
After days of reports questioning the controversial Johor Housing and Property Board Bill 2014, Utusan Malaysia has come under fire inside the Johor state assembly, from an Umno assemplyperson.
Umno Bukit Permai assemblyperson Ali Mazat Salleh hit out at the Umno-owned daily today, slamming the “provocation” of the daily paper in questioning the bill and urging the paper to apologise.
“This is provocation and I ask the paper to apologise,” said Ali, who raised a copy of the newspaper with the headline "Wajarkah ?" (Is it proper?) when debating the bill in the Johor state assembly.
He earlier chided media for publishing “irresponsible, seditious and provocative” statements to tarnish the image of the state government and the sultan.
He claimed that this was to give the impression that the bill will cause problems to the Johoreans.
'Don't interfere in Johor matters '
According to Ali, the sultan had stated, during this sessions's opening ceremony, that Johor issues are the exclusive right of the Johoreans and only the Johoreans will know the needs of the state.
“Why there are outsiders trying to intervene or teach us what we should do for our state?
“I want to remind the people who are outside the House, do not pretend to be smart and try to teach the Johor leadership how to run Johor,” he stressed.
As such, he supported the decision taken by the Johor Menteri Besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin (right) not to be cowed by the pressure and to table the bill to the state assembly.
Utusan had frontpaged the controversial bill for three consecutive days, starting with an article headlined "Wajarkah?" so as to question the necessity of the bill last Friday.
On Sunday, the paper took aim at Khaled for refusing to postpone the tabling of the bill.
The Johor state assembly passed the Bill today, with 10 amendments to reduce powers it had earlier planned to accord to the sultan.
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Apologise for bill report, Umno rep tells Utusan
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