FACT: Editors from the New Straits Times Press were, indeed, involved in drafting the Statement to Counter Dr M. (As far as I know, no editors from other Malaysian news organisations, not even Bernama, the national news agency, were privy).
FACT: At least two senior editors currently running the New Straits Times once served The Straits Times.
FACT: The Straits Times is a Singapore government's mouthpiece.
In view of these FACTS, it's only natural for some of us to see things, make out connections and be very, very suspicious.
You see a conflict of interest? How much access to these editors have to Classified documents and other Government secrets? Who authorised these editors to prepare the Statement and go through the Official Secrets of the Malaysian government? Why couldn't the Cabinet handle the response to Dr M's questions without involving these editors?
Was the NST the only one that got the Scoop hours before it was officially issued, or was the Statement also leaked to other parties?
Someone tells me, "The Government is no longer run by the Government".
How worried should I be? A thought for your weekend.
"...How worried should I be? A thought for your weekend..."
ReplyDelete==================================
Frightening & scary.
The hell, what are our so-called leaders doing?
Datuk Rejal Arbeen, U must come in and help the NSTP once again. I read your article about Singapore. I know you hates Singapore as you hates Datuk Kalimullah, Brendan, Datuk Hishamuddin Aun and Datuk Manja Ismail. Your have a very strong ill feeling against singapore. Why don't you prin your unpublished articles about Singapore to the public. If BH does'nt want to print your article, stop writing with the lousy news paper. As Bru said, the NST's editors now run the country, just imagine that.
ReplyDeleteRetak Seribu
After what has been happening lately, I'm not so surprised by now. So, what do we do here? Wait for General Election? Who do we vote for then? Opposition? No way. They are just as crooked. Migrate to Bali? Haha!
ReplyDeleteThe dandiprat’s handiwork, spun and served
ReplyDeleteFollowing Rocky’s revelations, I re-read the so-called Government’s statement “quoting” the declassified documents pertaining to the cancellation of the crooked bridge project. I read the statement that “claims to be the facts” from a highly sceptical position because Rocky’s revelations made the statement dubious, its intent questionable. More of that in a bit.
But I was actually more attuned to the written word: the statement’s style, tone, flow of thought and footwork. The way it was constructed, laid out and toned smacks weightily of Brendan Pereira’s pusillanimous handiwork. It’s also the way he authored that blather masquerading as a comment to support his handiwork.
But first, take a look at Appendix A or any other Appendixes and observe how the passages had been carefully and simplistically trussed: The statement outlines The Allegations, followed by The Facts. This is classic Brendan Pereira: simplistic, to-the-point writing technique. He berates this all the time in the newsroom.
The statement may have weaselled its way through Bernama but in its entirety, it is uncannily similar to Brendan’s alphabet assault, abhorrence for abstruseness and fondness for easy navigation. A Government servant or a lawyer or a ditzy Ministry Press secretary could not have written that way. It was too cold, too coherent and too pat.
One thing I cannot digest is the extra length of the statement (Brendan loves brevity) and why it took so long to materialise. The cabal stringing the Prime Minister may have something to do with it.
Galling? Certainly but more onerous is that Brendan didn’t bother to mask his handiwork. Either he condescendingly takes readers for fools or the man is simply a one-dimension writer. In any case, both traits littered the statement and this is why we have to reject it. The statement is terribly TAINTED.
Bloody hell, even a simple Government statement had to go through the Brendan Pereira spin machine.
So, how much can we trust the Government’s statement on the crooked bridge, or at least those connected to MM and SM from now on? I can’t in good conscience and faith, not until I see the bona fide declassified documents or one that Dr Mahathir Mohamad authenticates.
Copies of the actual declassified Government documents must now be made available for veracity purposes.
But, as other posters remind us, Malaysian newspaper editors who helped frame Government policy statements or even party election manifestos are as old as the newspapers’ existence.
Tan Sri A. Samad Ismail wrote a bulk of Tun Abdul Razak’s speeches while A. Kadir Jasin helped fine-tune Barisan Nasional’s election manifesto. So, for Brendan Pereira, or for Kalimullah Hassan to conceive the bridge statement is an extension of the past.
The crooked bridge statement authored/framed/edited/conceived by Brendan Pereira should be used by journalism schools on how NOT to write a Press statement.
What I can uneasily digest now is the machine-like coldness Singapore perfusates its agenda into the Malaysian body politic, and how it will deploy eager automatons like Kali and Brendan to spin the truth in their favour. Like I wrote before, Singapore tries too hard to be more sinless than a Jesuit priest.
Rocky’s revelations also raised an urgent dichotomy: the Singapore smooch and the people involved in the twisted tango to subvert Malaysian interests may not be criminally treacherous (at least not yet in the Special Branch’s eyes) but, by God, it is morally repugnant.
Also to make sure that Najib carried out Abdullah's orders as pre-determine by the menantu, the spin doctors and the Oxbridge Cabal.
ReplyDeleteWhat OSA are you talking about? You must be joking. Wake up Bru, this is the openess era when law and order mean nothing to this guys.
Shame on the Cabinet, the civil servants, the Wisma Putra and the likes of Ahmad Fuzi. You guys are wasting our votes by allowing these usurpers to undermine our country.
Being a journalist myself, I bet every penny I have in my pocket that while drafting the statement for Najib to issue, these NST guys were busily SMSing their counterparts in Singapore.
I don't remember voting into government certain people in the media. I wonder how they got the mandate to act as my elected representative -- to make decisions which only the legislative and executive should. These people in the media may the fourth pillar in a democracy but they were never elected, nor were they appointed by the King or parliament to act on my behalf or make vital decisions such as the declassification of government documents. No reason or excuse will ever justify the actions of the media men who behave in such a manner. But what disappoints me even more is the fact that the higest elected official in this country has allowed such men to make decisions on the declassification -- have we no longer a parliament or a cabinet that we should resort to men, who run profit-oriented media organisations? Have we just lost our democracy and all the mechanisms that make it such. Are we now in a state of emergency?
ReplyDeleteand once again what is supposed to PUT THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN has left us with even more questions. i truly hope the citizens of this great country will not fall for this BS. UNCLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS that only a few can see?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations government. You really won me over with that. /sarc
I dont know. Why you guys, that include Jeff ooi, hitting at the worng place in this issue?? It doesn't matter who help to draft the statement., as long as the statement is meant to explain the correct decision that was made by government by cancelling the crooked brdge.
ReplyDeleteWhatever has been revealed with the declassification, the following has not been explained ::
ReplyDelete1. Firstly are there clear benefits for redoing the causeway? If yes, what are they?
2. This bridge idea was first mooted years ago. And obviously there are agreements and nice legalities to be considered, why was the AG asleep till as recent as March/April 2006?
3. Why the sudden about-turn after going full steam ahead with the building of the bridge in Jan 2006 and the abrupt scrapping in April 2006?
4. Why the failure again to do the homework regarding the cost of scrapping the construction of the bridge? The taxpayers suddenly are given a hefty bill for an unconstructed bridge?
The declassification of documents certainly do not answer the abovementioned.
Another BN grand sandiwara. Please do not waste more of the taxpayers' money by printing the booklets, only further BS will be found in them.
Why does it take ages for AAB's administration to decide to declassify secret government documents in an attempt to clarify the bridge issue when the same information is available as public record since 2002 at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/
parliament/relations/documents.htm
Copies of actual correspondence and documents are displayed as well.
NST's disclosure looks more like a cheap B-movie to 'entertain the peasants'.
The government goofed big time and I hope TDM will expose NST's gambit to the public.
Meanwhile, a little nugget to consider - KTM landbank in Singapore is estimated to be worth S$4 billion. Maybe, that's why red herrings abound.
Bru Bro,
ReplyDeleteTell me it's not true - that the Government, that the Umno-controlled government, is relying on editors to draft and spin the bridge stories? And if I get your drift correctly, they are Singapore-trained or Singapore-linked editors! Tell me it's not true!
Are you saying that Umno has surrendered its authority to these editors? It's not really difficult to find who these editors are. It's not rocket science. If what you report is true, then all I can say is - habislah kita! I thought that Dato Zam, the Information Minister who was Chief Editor of the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia. Would have drafted the statement. Now, Bru Bro, you are telling me that it's the work of two editors, and that they could be Singapore-linked! Habis lah kita!
PS - whatever happened to Umno's so-called perjuangan?
" Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI dont know. Why you guys, that include Jeff ooi, hitting at the worng place in this issue?? It doesn't matter who help to draft the statement., as long as the statement is meant to explain the correct decision that was made by government by cancelling the crooked brdge. "
well anonymous, the issue we are concerned with here with this thread is how things ought to be done and not about the aborted bridge...
allow me to enlighten you; it was AAB's administration which approves of the continuity of the bridge/CIQ until sometime in April 06 that they went U-turn ...
irregardless of the MERITS/DEMERITS of building the so-called bridge, the problem at hand now is the WAY IN WHICH the government answers all the nagging issues and how spin-doctors distorts the context and the accuracy of the so-called de-classified OSA documents in rebutting citizen Mahatir's question ...
Some of those documents are not so secret.
ReplyDeleteThe ST of Singapore published some of those letters after the talks were called off sometime ago to rebutt allegations in the Malaysian press.
It seems there are still readers here who are not aware of the partisan and blatant adverse spinning jobs undertaken by Kali and Brendan.
ReplyDeleteAccess to sensitive government documents by Singapore-linked apologists whose security vetting have become controversial topics of kedai kopi discussions are themselves the hallmark of this equally apologetic administration.
How on earth not even a single UMNO branch or division protest without fear and favour and table an emergency resolution calling for a special expert commission to probe into these very serious implications to our sovereignty? At the very least the increasingly anxious population must be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that there are indeed no serious moles who are in the position to compromise Malaysia's sovereignty by virtue of the misplaced trust given to them by the current administration.
Wow, conspiracy theories abound. If you guys want to catch communists, there are plenty of reds under the beds.
ReplyDeleteHundreds of thousands of Malaysians worked in Singapore, are working and will be working in Singapore, no thanks to the Malaysian Government in not being able to provide good-paying jobs for its own citizens. Instead of being grateful, why are hunting for ghosts?
You want conspiracy? Here's the mother of all conspiracy -- Dr M studied and got his medical degree in Singapore. So, he must have sold his integrity and sovereignty to Singapore.
Jeeeezeeeeeeee.
Kawan!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't kidding.
Fact 1. Kalimullah Hassan worked with Singapore Straits Times. He was made NSTP's Group Editor-in-chief in 2004 and is now its deputy chairman and Editorial Adviser
Fact 2. Brendan Pereira worked with Singapore Straits Times. He is now the Group Editor of NST.
Fact 3. Ahirudin Attan, this blogger, was also Singapore-trained. He lived there for the first 17 years of his life, completed his secondary school and went to its madrasah. He also worked in some factories in Singapore in the late 70s. But has never worked with any newspaper in the republic.
These are FACTS which are known to enough peole. But these FACTS do not mean that all of us or any of us are still working with Singapore, or parties in Singapore, in some capacity or other.
But as Anonymous put it, "...at the very least the increasingly anxious population must be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that there are indeed no serious moles who are in the position to compromise Malaysia's sovereignty by virtue of the misplaced trust given to them by the current administration."
Bru Bro,
ReplyDeleteTq for the info on these editors. An old editor friend of mine once said: "if in doubt, check it out." When I visit the other blogsites, I see how these editors are called names that could cast doubts on their objectives working for an Umno-owned daily.
If you listen to the grapevine, and believe them, then we are really in a mess. U take care Bro.
Must also remember that Singapore Government has put in place ex-military intelligence officers into media companies in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteWhen two senior editors who helped draft a document to answer (read:spin) queries by Tun Mahathir, take orders froma foreign power, then we have something to be worried about.
ReplyDeleteIt is not just a document to explain about the bridge, my friend. It is a document drafted in the way their "master" have ordered them to word.
When the olde journalism masters helped the governemnt/political leaders, it was for "national service" -- speeches about national development, poverty eradication, Malay unity etc etc -- Further these editors were not the baruahs of any foreign power.Tan Sri Samad was persona non grata in Singapore and LKY's sworn enemy.
- We all should be very worried.
Has anybody proposed the idea of reclaiming part of the Tebrau straits?
ReplyDeleteI am referring to the sections consisting of:
a)the vicinity of the causeway itself.
b)southwards upto the boundary (in the water) with Singapore.
c)east and westwards, taking into account Malaysian maritime activities i.e. PTP and the naval base, etc.
Since one of the original purpose of the bridge was to overcome pollution within the straits and now that we, somehow, are not able to proceed, it makes more sense to reclaim.
Of course, the Johore river will have to be extended further south into what is left of the Tebrau straits on the Singapore side.
On the other hand, Singapore will definitely welcome the idea as they had the same idea mentioned in the POA negotiations albeit to reclaim their section of the Tebrau straits.
Therefore, it might create a win-win solution for all except for one tiny detail.
We have the sand to reclaim, they don't.
Think about it, folks.
Mustang said...
ReplyDelete"...Further these editors were not the baruahs of any foreign power.Tan Sri Samad was persona non grata in Singapore and LKY's sworn enemy.
- We all should be very worried. "
=================================
Indeed, we should!!
What you said is true!
Didnt Lee Kuan Yew have a hand in putting Pak Samad away under ISA for 51/2 years taking advantage of the Umno internal struggle following the death of Tun Razak in 1976?
He took King Ghaz,the then ambitious & powerful Home Minister, by his balls to have his long-time enemy, Pak Samad, detained.
LKY has a thick file on King Ghaz escapes in Singapore!!!
That's the danger. And now we have Singapore agents - this is no longer a rumour, but a fact - openly running the country through its proxies in the NST.
No thanks to our pengecut leaders.
This is indeed troubled times for our country, whose sovereignty is being openly sabotaged!
mr anonymous
ReplyDeleteWell… if u r referring to the 4am traffic going towards s’pore, friend, look again! The traffic actually doubles the mass on weekends only at the opposite way. So, dun be hypercritical on one side alone, look at both sides before giving your so called opinion.
Technically speaking, if not because of d causeway and johor, the inhabitants of the infinitesimal isle would hef wiped out of cluster phobic long ago. Think again, who should be grateful here…
Correction. Should read as:
ReplyDeleteLKY has a thick file on King Ghaz's ESCAPADES in Singapore!!!
Anonymous behave like jews mentality,when somebody touch about their wrongdoing and hidden agenda they will say conspiracy theory. You can make a lies toMalaysia minister but not to Malaysian people.BTW you either a Singaporean or their agnet.
ReplyDeletekaliyuga:
ReplyDeleteYour offer "Being a journalist myself, I bet every penny I have in my pocket that while drafting the statement for Najib to issue, these NST guys were busily SMSing their counterparts in Singapore. "
Count me in, I counted about RM200.00 (Two hundred ringgit) in my pocket; i'm also a journalist: BUT WHO's THE ADJUDICATOR?
Back to you,, but I wish you cvould provide a link to a "persona" than bla-bal-ing away under a pseudonym. Journalistic integrity test, No?