Dear Editors,
I am writing to complain about Joe Fernandez’s report “S’wak PKR tells Anwar to settle Sabah crisis swiftly” on 3 September where he has unfairly and without justification exaggerated the impact of the case of the 12 Sabahans’ suspension for registering Parti Cinta Sabah on Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in Sarawak.
In the report, he has misquoted Baru Bian, PKR Sarawak Chief several times (misquoted sections are underlined below).
“We told Anwar frankly that the issue of the 12 Sabah PKR leaders facing disciplinary action is affecting morale and preparation in Sarawak,” said state PKR chief Baru Bian “He must be bold and decisive. This issue had been settled. Suddenly, it flared up again and caught us all by surprise.”
“These are small places and yet the turnout was something that Anwar himself did not expect,” he said.
“When asked about the chances (for the opposition coalition) in Sarawak, (Anwar) told them that he was an incurable optimist,” he said.
“PKR national vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan (left) from Sabah has been instrumental in building up the party in Sarawak,” he said.
He completely agreed with Chua Jui Meng, who accompanied Anwar, that “there should be no witch-hunt as agreed under the Dec 13 formula”.
“According to Anwar, some new evidence had surfaced that necessitated the taking of the pending disciplinary action against the Sabah 12,” said Bian. “He doesn’t see the new evidence as covered by the peace plan.”
“Anwar stressed on the new evidence and thinks that the disciplinary process should have been allowed to run its course,” said Bian, who is a practising lawyer.
“Instead, there was a pre-emptive rush to judgment on the appeal process. Some media reported that only three leaders would be suspended and the others let off with warning letters.”
“The final verdict, whatever its form, cannot logically be announced before the appeal process had been completed,” he said.
Anwar was also anxious to assure the gathering in Kuching that he “was not anti-Christian as painted by some of the media in the wake of the disciplinary action against the promoters of PCS”.
“We must give Anwar the benefit of the doubt in the conduct of the disciplinary and appeal process,” said Bian.
“It shouldn’t be long before we can bring this unfortunate episode to a close.”
Being a party man, he said, he “draws a firm line against washing dirty linen in public”.
We find the reporting totally unacceptable and done in mala fide as there seemed to be an agenda to paint PKR and especially Anwar in a bad light and as an anti-Christian.
We reiterate that the 12 Sabahans were suspended because they registered a new party, an act which is a serious breach of party rules and has nothing to do with the fact that some of them are Christians or Kadazan Dusuns. Baru Bian was of course dismayed over the report and has written to Steven Gan on this issue. We also reproduce Baru Bian’s sms to Joe Fernandez over the recent article:
Friend,
You have not kept your words. You not only put words into my mouth but ‘quoted’ me all the way in your article which were not quite accurate. I am afraid, I cannot trust you any more. Very disappointed!
BBian
Nor is this the first time that Joe Fernandez has written in such a manner on PKR and Anwar. In fact, this seemed to be a constant recurrence as can be seen in the following articles (there are more) which also contain similar flaws, misquotations and negative slants.
“3 Sabah PKR leaders suspended, 9 warned”, August 30, 2010
This was not even a decision taken at the PKR Central Committee Meeting. Instead, the decision was to accept the recommendation of the disciplinary committee to suspend the 12 to take effect from 4 January 2010 till 3 January 2011. The Party has also indicated that they can appeal on the decision and the appeal will heard as soon as possible so that those who have been nominated may be able to participate in the party elections. This is contrary to what has been reported.
“Sabah a daunting challenge for Anwar”, August 29, 2010
The whole story claiming that Anwar was snubbed due to the Party action against the 12 Sabahans was completely untrue and based on unkind interpretations of what actually happened e.g. he was said to not received any visitors from the time he checked into the hotel till the time he went to the state council meeting when in fact he only had an hour to rest before going to the said meeting; that there was a low turnout of 300 people when in fact the hall in the hotel was packed; and the assumption that the ceramah in Sepanggar was cancelled as a reaction to the suspension when in fact, it was cancelled due to the inability to obtain a police permit. Further the whole article was
“Jeffrey tells Anwar to stay away from Sabah”, August 27, 2010
The sms from Jeffery to Anwar was taken out of context and misrepresented as a whole to give the impression that Jeffrey told Anwar to stay away from Sabah and that he would not be welcomed at the moment. This is misleading as the sms from Jeffrey merely advised Anwar to reconsider the visit and it was not a warning or a strong message as portrayed. Furthermore, the visit was scheduled by the entire Sabah PKR leadership and Jeffrey’s sms was not a collective decision.
Whilst we respect and appreciate the work of Malaysiakini that has contributed to independent journalism, freedom of the press and information, we unfortunately have to reject the type of journalism that is practiced by Joe Fernandez. We have thus instructed our PKR leaders not to deal with him anymore and we would appreciate if you could assign other journalists to cover PKR issues.
Once again, we are disappointed that Malaysiakini seems to have fallen below the standards required when it comes to reporting on PKR. We sincerely hope that Malaysiakini does not fall into the ongoing trend that have affected several online media and blogs that thrive on exaggeration or creating PKR scandals when there is none, and quoting unnamed or insider sources when party leaders are available for comments or to provide alternative explanations.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
LATHEEFA KOYA
PKR Information Chief
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