WSJ likened to a beauty queen with 'panau'
PARLIAMENT Launching a heavy attack on The Wall Street Journal , a BN lawmaker today likened the business daily to a “beauty queen with panau ( skin disease) under her clothes”.
Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali (BN-Bagan Serai) ticked off the WSJ for using sensational news to sell its paper, saying the daily “cannot be fully trusted”.
In the debate on the royal address at the Dewan Rakyat, he said the business daily has been playing up news on Malaysia to the extent that readers thought Malaysia has suffered a bad economic downturn.
PARLIAMENT Launching a heavy attack on The Wall Street Journal , a BN lawmaker today likened the business daily to a “beauty queen with panau (skin disease) under her clothes”.
Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali (BN-Bagan Serai) ticked off the WSJ for using sensational news to sell its paper, saying the daily “cannot be fully trusted”.
In the debate on the royal address at the Dewan Rakyat, he said the business daily has been playing up news on Malaysia to the extent that readers thought Malaysia has suffered a bad economic downturn.
Noor was making reference to the numerous WSJ reports on the RM2.6 donation which was found in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal bank accounts.
According to him, the economic reality was different as reported by the three top rating agencies – Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor's and Moody's.
"You cannot take it lightly with the ratings of these big three (agencies)," Noor said.
"WSJ is a business paper which looks for sensational news. The more sensational their news is, the more people love it," he said.
"The rating agencies are used by investors to make decision as to whether to buy or sell. The people do not make decision with WSJ," he added.
"I am not saying WSJ is wrong in its reports. I am just saying that when we decide, who should we trust – WSJ or rating agencies ?" he asked.
"WSJ is like a beauty queen with beautiful dresses. But she has panau under her clothes," he said.
According to him, what had been reported could add salt to the present perception of terrorism, which could confuse the people, particularly the youth.
On Feb 24, Fitch Ratings had reaffirmed Malaysia’s long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings at ’'A-‘ and ‘A’, respectively, with stable outlooks.
A day later, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P's) said Malaysian banks were unlikely to get much reprieve from the difficult operating conditions this year.
In January, Moody’s had affirmed the government of Malaysia’s issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings at A3 and changed the outlook to stable from positive.
