Was the warning issued by Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin yesterday that the media should muzzle itself on contentious issues or face dire consequences authorised by the prime minister?.

This is the question posed by Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang today.

Zainuddin had told the mainstream media in a strongly worded statement not to create 'unnecessary contentious' issues to maintain 'peace', warning that the government will no longer compromise with media organisations that fan religious and racial sentiments.

"The government means business in this issue," Zam had said in a statement, which also touched on the role of newspapers in causing the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

Lim quoted Zainuddin's statement carried in the Star today which reported that "the media should not be used as a tool for so-called "freedom fighters," adding that the mainstream media "knew" they could operate safely unless they flouted the Sedition Act 1948 and the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

Lim said that such statements were no less that "declaration of war" against the media.

He said Zainuddin has accused two mainstream newspapers (he did not identify them) of abusing their 'freedom', and said that the minister claimed that the government has already collected 'ample evidence of the crime' of certain local newspapers to undermine the credibility of Islam as the official religion and the rights of all communities as contained in the Federal Constitution.

"[Zainuddin said that the publications] raised the spectre of May 13 and the possibility of another Operation Lalang, and warned that the government means business and will not tolerate the media which would inflame communalism and religious issues," he said.

Full authority?

Lim asked whether Zainuddin has the full authority and prior clearance of the prime minister to issue such statement.

He felt that Zainuddin's statement could be the first sign of public fissure of contending factions in the cabinet where "the prime minister's writ cannot even extend to his own ministers, with ministers openly misinterpreting if not hijacking Abdullah's wishes and intentions".

On Zainuddin's comment on UPM's ethnic relations guidebook, Lim asked if Zainuddin is suggesting that the prime minister had been wrong in ordering a withdrawal of the guidebook and calling for a review for the module.

He said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should clarify whether the administration has become so weakened by the Mahathir attacks that "hardliners in the cabinet and government are having an upper hand to hijack his agenda and even to conduct an open internecine warfare".

"The ball is in Abdullah's court. He should be the one to disabuse Malaysians of the belief that there had been a "honeymoon period" for press freedom when he first became prime minister.

"Abdullah should also clarify whether he had elevated Zainuddin to be the "czar" of the Malaysia media, delegating to the information minister all the powers of the internal security minister with regard to mass media in the country," he said.