Minister distances himself from aide's 'heads must roll in RTM' remark
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said he did not instruct his press secretary Lim Swee Kuan to demand heads to roll in RTM.
“I never gave any instructions (to him). He (Lim) wrote it (the statement) based on his own feelings,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur this morning...
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said he did not instruct his press secretary Lim Swee Kuan to demand heads roll in RTM.
“I never gave any instructions (to him). He (Lim) wrote it (the statement) based on his own feelings,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur this morning.
Loke said he would leave it to Communication and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo to investigate the matter.
On Sunday, Lim launched a broadside against RTM for not broadcasting Loke and Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun's speeches at the Pakatan Harapan government's inaugural national-level Chinese New Year open house in Seremban.
"Not a single word of the speeches of Aminuddin and Loke were broadcasted [...] what is this if not sabotage? Heads must roll over the possible sabotage against the government administration,” he had said.
Lim's remarks drew flak from PKR member Latheefa Koya who said the threat smacked of arrogance, while former premier Najib Abdul Razak claimed it was tantamount to intimidating public servants.
Meanwhile, Gobind has instructed RTM to furnish a report on the matter.
Pressed further on his aide's statement, the minister reiterated several times that he did not instruct Lim (photo) to make such remarks and that it was the latter's personal view.
“It's just a personal opinion. It's not an instruction from me. Press secretaries cannot instruct other ministers to sack people.
“As I said, I will leave it to Gobind to probe. Of course, there are other complaints against certain agencies in particular... I don't want to deal with it. Let Gobind investigate,” he added.
Loke, who revealed that he had spoken to his aide regarding the outburst, denied that the incident amounted to infringing media freedom.
“This is not a question of infringing media freedom. We need to understand. It was a live event, (but) one portion of the live event was taken out. That is the real issue here.
“Number one, (RTM) is a government station and the entire event was supposed to be live, but one portion was taken out. I think this is the crux of the issue,” he added.
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