What national reconciliation? Saifuddin asks

PETALING JAYA (May 7): Umno supreme council member Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah disagreed with Utusan Malaysia, criticising the paper for stirring up racial sentiments in its front page report today.

Saifuddin also questioned "Umno's sincerity" in national reconciliation as the newspaper is owned by the party.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had earlier justified Utusan Malaysia’s headline “Apa lagi Cina mahu (what else do the Chinese want?)”, stressing the front page of the national daily was a reaction to the misleading rhetoric by the DAP.

When responding to fz.com, Saifuddin had initially criticised the Umno-owned paper for not being in line with Najib’s message of reconciliation.

“Utusan is seen as an Umno newspaper. Umno did better this time at both the parliamentary and state level. So there is really no need for such story,” he said.

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However when learning of Najib’s statement, the former Termerloh lawmaker reiterated his stand against the Utusan article but declined to comment specifically on the prime minister’s comments.

"I don’t agree with Utusan’s headline... I don’t know what national reconciliation we are talking about. I thought there was a difference between analysing statistics and blaming people,” he said.

Saifuddin admitted he lost his Termerloh seat because he was not able to garner significant support from the Chinese community.

“I have to admit that I did not do well in Chinese-dominant areas and the votes I got from the Malay dominant areas was not able to make up for the loss votes so I lost.

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“But I did not blame the Chinese. I chose to respect the vote of the Temerloh people. I told them it was a wise choice. As a politician, you must accept the decision made by the people with an open heart,” he said.

Saifuddin lost in his bid to defend Temerloh, which was won by PAS' Nasrudin Hassan.

Saifuddin also stressed that Najib should not fear his position as the president of Umno.

“I don’t think Najib should be worried. Number one because the party members have lowered their bar after what happened in 2008 and number two, Umno on a whole did much better this time.

“So I think Najib should be commended and he should continue as Umno president.

“I for one will defend his (Najib) position as Umno president and don’t see why people should go against him,” he added.

Gerakan deputy president Datuk Chang Ko Youn, however, defended Najib and said the prime minister was referring to the freedom of expression.

“It is the freedom of speech and the press. There was no harm and it is important to raise this issue to allow debate. PM was only defending the freedom of speech,” he said.

“We are urging the newspapers to be more responsible. Especially during the election campaign where can different media supporting the values of the opposition and Barisan Nasional.

“Even in Britain, newspapers take up stance on who they want to support,” he said.

MCA leaders were not available for comment.

Earlier today, MIC vice-president Datuk M Saravanan also defended the Umno-owned newspaper today and told reporters that the community had been ungrateful.

This echoed the statement made yesterday by former Melaka chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam that Chinese do not appreciate the government.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also earlier told a press conference that “most of the Chinese had rejected the Malays’ hands of friendship”.