Selangor state executive councillor Teresa Kok is not pleased with Malay daily Utusan Malaysia for making her an 'easy target' over the modern pig farm project fiasco.

She criticised the paper for taking her blog comments out of context and making the modern pig farm issue in Selangor "ugly and distasteful to the Malay community."

"I am now reluctant to take interviews from Utusan . On one hand we wish we could reach out to the Malay readers but on the other, our comments are being twisted and turned by them. I think whatever I say now will be used against me," she said.

The proposed RM100 million hi-tech pig farm in Selangor at Ladang Tumbuk in the Kuala Langat district received massive coverage in the local Malay newspapers.

It carried statements from various NGOs and local residents who were against the project citing environmental, transparency and religious concerns.

teresa kok interview 140408 09 Expressing her reluctance to comment further on the pig farm project on the outset when met, Kok appeared both upset and amused at times.

She explained that the entire controversy began when she blogged about being given five roast pigs from supporters in Salak South on March 19 to celebrate her elections victory.

She received 50 comments with almost half of them criticising her for being insensitive to the Muslim community. Resulting from this, one of her assistants cropped the picture and changed the title of the post.

'Whack the bloggers'

On April 3, she rebutted those criticisms surrounding the roast pigs, saying she "did not understand why some people were sensitive about pigs and pork" as the animal was a creation of God too.

According to her, those few lines were meant to "whack the bloggers" that commented on her insensitivity for publishing pictures of the roast pigs.

"I'm my heart at that time, I was thinking why are people so sensitive about the roast pigs? This is the Chinese culture of celebration, from the goodwill of my supporters.

"This blog is something like my diary. I'm just displaying on my blog what has happened and it was not meant to offend the Muslims at all," she asserted while pointing at her website on her laptop.

However, in the same blog post, she casually mentioned that the Selangor state exco meeting had approved a RM100 million modern pig farm in Kuala Langat.

"I felt so proud to see this decision being approved by our state excos. The exco who (is) in charge of (the) agriculture portfolio is Yaakob (Sapari) from PKR.

"He is an expert in the field of modern agriculture. I told the excos in the meeting (to) let the Selangor modern pig farm be an example to all other state governments," she wrote.

'Ugly and distasteful'

Two days later, Utusan reported that the state approved this modern pig farm, quoting Kok from her blog questioning why people are sensitive about pigs.

"They took my statements out of context and made it so ugly and distasteful especially for the Malay community," she said.

Kok stressed that her statement regarding people's sensitivity to pigs was in reference to the picture of the roast pigs in her blog, and not the pig farm project.

She explained that she did not mean to make the announcement on Yaakob's behalf and hinted he will be making an announcement concerning a road show soon.

"I think he is going to say something about it but I feel reluctant to speak to Malaysiakini about the details because then I would be stepping into his portfolio.

"I didn't mean to make an announcement on his behalf. I think it is better to let the Selangor menteri besar (Khalid Ibrahim) and Yaakob to comment further because they know best.

"This is a case of having a few lines in my blog being blown out of proportion and distorted by Utusan Malaysia . I feel as though I'm innocently being dragged into this whole fiasco," she said.

The DAP publicity secretary also claimed that the recent protests against the pig farm project were initiated by Umno.

She also responded to former state menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo's denial that the previous state government had approved the project by showing declassified exco meeting minutes.

It showed that the exco-Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) paper tabled on Jan 30, the former state government at that time had approved the acquisition of 136.41 hectres in Mukim Batu for the facility.