Ismail Sabri calls for Al Jazeera apology over 'unethical and deceptive' documentary
CORONAVIRUS | Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob today hit out at Al Jazeera for being unethical in producing what he described as a deceptive documentary over the government's handling of the undocumented migrant population during the Covid-19 outbreak.
In a daily press conference from Putrajaya, Ismail said that what was reported in Al Jazeera's 101 East documentary episode called Locked Up in Malaysia's Lockdown was a lie as the government did not specifically target migrants, but everyone located in those areas specifically hit hard by Covid-19.
CORONAVIRUS | Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob today hit out at Al Jazeera for being unethical in producing what he described as a deceptive documentary over the government's handling of the undocumented migrant population during the Covid-19 outbreak.
In a daily press conference from Putrajaya, Ismail said what was reported in Al Jazeera's 101 East documentary episode called Locked Up in Malaysia's Lockdown was a lie as the government did not specifically target migrants, but everyone located in those areas specifically hit hard by Covid-19.
"It is not true to accuse us of being racist in our action as we acted according to the law. The Immigration Department nabbed the undocumented migrants based on the Immigration Act," he added.
He said there is no country in the world which would allow undocumented migrants to roam in their country freely.
"I challenge Al Jazeera to name any country that would grant undocumented migrants absolute freedom.
"The answer would be none. This is because all countries would have almost the same set of immigration laws," he said.
The 25-minute documentary called the immigration raids "military-style" and highlighted the cramped conditions under which the migrants were housed.
It even questioned if the detention policies were racist.
The segment included interviews with both documented and undocumented migrants, NGOs, civil society organisations and trade associations.
It's worth noting that it was stated in Al Jazeera’s report that they reached out to Ismail himself, Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin and their deputies for comments, but these requests were not entertained.
The defence minister said: "(Another) deception by Al Jazeera was it reported the children were handcuffed when they were brought to the detention centre. This is an open lie.
"I think that the journalist has no ethics at all."
He clarified that the children would not be handcuffed and they will be placed at a separate area together with their parents, segregated from other detainees.
Ismail urged Al Jazeera to apologise to Malaysians for its report.
At another function today in Malacca, Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said the news report not only portrayed an inaccurate account of how the government had been managing the outbreak, but also painted a very bad image of the country.
“The beginning and the end of this particular news report were done badly, and in addition had caused much damage to Malaysia’s image.
"The report kicked-off by mentioning ‘racism’ and ended the same way. Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-religious country and widely known as a peaceful nation.
“It is not as how it was portrayed by Al Jazeera at all, this is inaccurate,” he told the media.
"Yesterday, I saw thousands of Malaysians (pressed the) 'disliked' (button) until Al Jazeera disabled its comment (section)," he said.
Ismail added that a total of 777 out of 4,924 undocumented migrants nabbed were found to be infected and treated for Covid-19.
All of them would be deported back to their own countries, he said.
The government also conducted Covid-19 tests on 68,829 documented migrants and found 2,579 infected with the virus.
Meanwhile, human rights group Article 19 raised concerns about the threats against the migrant worker featured in Al Jazeera's report.
"This discriminatory and dehumanising behaviour poses a risk of violence to him and migrants like him. Authorities must ensure that threats against the migrant worker are investigated, and perpetrators be held accountable," it said in a statement today.
"We reiterate our call on authorities to lead by example and condemn hateful remarks directed at the migrant community in Malaysia."
Article 19 said the government must act to decrease the risk of intolerance and discrimination as well as protect vulnerable communities from hate speech.
The group urged the government to formulate and pass comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation in line with international human rights standards.
Saifuddin, just because Malaysia is a multi-racial country does not mean it does not have racist policies. As a matter of fact many of its policies are racist. Malaysians are brought up to be racists precisely because of government policies and the politicians harping on race. Note the furor that was raised the last time when the Lord President, Attorney General and Finance Minister did not happen to be Malay Muslims. And also the coup that toppled the PH govt was staged because certain groups wanted a govt that is overwhelmingly dominated by Malay Muslims. To claim that the Malaysian govt is not racist is to practise self deception.
Kalau fitnah, tunggu apa lagi ... saman lah, big mouth !
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