The sacked editor on duty who admitted responsibility for the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in the Feb 4 issue of the Sarawak Tribune today described Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's decision not to take action against the New Straits Times as "a wise one as there is a need to end the controversy and not to go on a witch-hunt."

"Let's forgive and forget," was how Lester Melanyi, 40, described his reaction to the episode that landed him jobless after the management of the Sarawak Tribune blamed him for republishing the caricature Muslims consider blasphemous.

The government also decided to suspend the state's oldest English daily for an indefinite period, even though the decision was made later in the day after the paper's directors decided on a self-imposed suspension because they said the paper had caused much embarrassment to Malaysia and Malaysians, especially Muslims.

The paper's group editor Toman Mamora also resigned.

After the interview, Lester sent a SMS to this reporter: "Please tell Pak Lah that I need a job to feed my family."

Suggested same thing

Meanwhile, another ex- Sarawak Tribune editorial staff who asked not to be identified said the prime minister's decision on the NST was "unfair and double standard."

"Why should the Sarawak Tribune be punished and two of its senior editorial staff forced to resign for a mistake that the NST similarly made in publishing the cartoon strip, even different but suggested the same thing?'

He added that it was immaterial whether the management of the Sarawak Tribune had decided on a self-imposed suspension because the Minister of Internal Security ordered the indefinite suspension in writing.

Meanwhile, state Parti Keadilan Rakyat liaision chief Wan Zainal Wan Sanusi told malaysiakini the prime minister must have considered various factors, including political, in arriving at the decision today not to take action against the NST .