YOURSAY | It's not the government’s prerogative to decide what fake news is.
Ministry warns stern action on those spreading fake news on 1MDB
Trueglitter: Communications and Multimedia Deputy Minister Jailani Johari, no amount of threats from you or your cohorts will be worthy of any concerns or be a deterrent to the people’s insatiable desire to pursue the truth in the 1MDB debacle.
Your insensitive cum un-intelligent outburst clearly served to reflect your irresponsibility and non-adherence to the norms that come with the high office of deputy minister that you have privilege to hold.
It is our right to remind you that you are entrusted with a duty to be honest and act with dignity and professionalism rather than be PM Najib Razak’s lap dog to garner his favours in face of the impending GE14.
Politicians should earnestly safeguard their invaluable reputation by their ennobled capability and capacity in speaking the truth, and fearlessly call a spade a spade.
To recoup your seemingly lost pride and dignity in the said matter, it would be appropriate to retract your heinous rhetoric through a public apology in the Malaysiakini.
Res Ipsa: Instead of taking defensive positions all the time, why isn't the problem being tackled at its very source?
If Malaysia has been wronged or has nothing to hide, why not go after all the propagandists of fake news from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Economist, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and MSNBC, etc.
In fact, MSNBC was being very candid, or perhaps even sarcastic, in informing US taxpayers that a windfall was coming their way beginning with a US$250 million super-yacht seized by their Department of Justice (DOJ) and settlement proceeds of US$60 million with Red Granite for using allegedly laundered monies to finance the Hollywood blockbuster "The Wolf of Wall Street".
The reason for this candidness, or sarcasm as you may put it, is because the very source nation of those allegedly laundered monies pretends, and continues to pretend, that nothing has been lost and therefore there is no necessity to take further steps at all to reclaim those assets or monies as the rightful owner.
In fact, they merely pay lip service by going further to allege that all this is fake news. On this score, is Jailani also contending that the US$60 million settlement done by Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz as the owner of Red Granite with the DOJ also fake news?
If it was fake news and there was no involvement of laundered monies, what is the reason for the settlement?
Now that the Indonesian magazine, Tempo, in its latest edition carries a cover-page story on the seized yacht naming Jho Low as the owner and being a close associate of our PM, what then is our next step?
Start screaming fake news again or get Ikan Bakar Jamal (Md Yunos) and his red-shirt troops to demonstrate outside the Indonesian embassy? Just how much lower can our people in authority stoop to save the skin of their master?
Not Convinced: "This Malaysian (Jho Low) was hunted in eight countries in relation to the misappropriation of billions in 1MDB funds. I am only asking that those responsible open an investigation paper and do their jobs," said Rais Yatim in a Twitter post.
This is what Rais, who is a special adviser to the government on sociocultural matters which carries the same status as a minister, said when telling his colleague, Salleh Said Keruak, to “spare the sarcasm” after Rais was accused by the communications and multimedia minister of being influenced, among others, the foreign media.
So, Jalani, is Rais spreading false news, too?
Discovery Today: Jailani, there’s no need to intimidate and threaten the rakyat. Just do the following to put this fake news issue of yours to rest:
1. Make public the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report that is classified under Official Secrets Act (OSA).
2. Sue Indonesia’s Tempo, sue the DOJ, sue WSJ and any news media that have published damaging articles on 1MDB and MO1.
3. Take legal action against countries that have prosecuted people found to have committed wrong involving 1MDB.
4. Disclose all of 1MDB accounts and show us that its billions have “not” been lost.
5. Ask Jho Low to return to Malaysia and address the nation in public since all of you have declared he has done no wrong.
Do the above five things and I assured you that the fake news involving 1MDB will be put to rest forever. There is no need to threaten anyone.
Clever Voter: One of the fundamentals of democracy is free speech. A self-regulating but matured society will recognise fake news.
They do not need a self-serving politician to lecture and tell them what is and what is not fake news. Denial of truth is wrong, and one that BN politicians constantly used to mislead the nation.
Yes, all news agencies carry a degree of bias but they do not intentionally spread fake news. The 1MDB issue will not end as long as investigation at home and abroad are ongoing.
On top of denials and lies, the trend now is for government to accuse others of spreading fake news when they themselves are the source of such news.
Tony Soprano: Indeed, it's not the government’s prerogative to decide what fake news is, and especially, it has no business to regulate news. But that has always been the case in Malaysia and similar authoritarian regimes.
China is far worse in this regard. There's no access to Google, NYT, Facebook or any item that the censors don't like so that citizens and foreigners alike will think China is the most flawless nation in the world.
Malaysia is not far behind. Malaysiakini has already been under perpetual attack and it's only a matter of time before a ‘Malaysian Great Wall’ is erected with China’s help.
Hot Khong: Perhaps I can help by listing down all the so-called fake news reports from the foreign media who called Najib a “thief” so that Jailani can take "stern action".
I'll also include the DOJ site that made many references to Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) in its lawsuit so that there's no doubt about such fake news.
Carpe Diem: We need to set up a ledger that records the words, announcements and proclamations of all these sycophants so that there is a proper list of people to prosecute when the 1MDB fiasco collapses around them.
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