The Associated Press "purposely" quoted Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad out of context in order to tarnish his image and that of Malaysia in the international arena, said a local daily today.

In a commentary, Utusan Malaysia said one of the immediate repercussions of the AP article was that foreign investors are having 'second thoughts' about investing in Malaysia.

In the Oct 8 report, AP quoted the premier as saying in Parliament that the United States and Britain should attack Israel.

This prompted the Prime Minister's Department to demand an apology for the "mischievous" report. AP then published a corrected version three days later .

The news agency conceded that it misquoted Mahathir and explained that the premier, when he said "if they wanted to take action, they should pick on those who had acted against them", was actually referring to the terrorists and not the alliance.

Damage done

However, Utusan argues that despite the attempt made by the PM's Department to correct the wrong perception, the "damage was done" and Malaysia has "to pay heavily".

The daily claimed the AP report by Sean Yoong, which was also published in the Asian Wall Street Journal , The Independent (UK) and The Belfast Telegraph had created a "bad image" for Malaysia.

"Yoong, intentionally or not, had quoted Dr Mahathir out of context. The fact is, Dr Mahathir has never urged US and Britain to attack Israel, as indicated in the AP report," said Utusan .

Utusan also questioned Yoong's "actual intention" and claimed that the writer had previously penned a "series of misleading" articles regarding the Damansara Chinese Primary school issue.

"In the articles ( AP Jan 8, 2001) Yong wrote on residents' protest against the government-brokered Vision School which will integrate the Malay, India and Chinese vernacular schools under one roof ".

"On Jan 29, Yoong again wrote an article which among others, said the education minister had directed the closure of the school. But contrary to that report, the education actually agreed to relocate the school," said the daily.

According to Utusan, the above articles reveal that this was not the first time Yoong had misreported on Malaysia.

The daily concluded that Yoong does harbour a " bad intention towards the Malaysian government".