Readers must support Hata and NUJ — Bob Teoh - The Malaysian Insider January 18, 2011
JAN 18 — Regardless of which newspaper they buy, readers must strongly support the NUJ and Hata Wahari, its besieged president. This is to tell Utusan Malaysia in no uncertain terms the reading public condemns its union bashing and irresponsible journalism. Utusan has been behaving like the bad boy of Malaysian journalism with impunity for far too long. It’s time to stop the monster.
The Industrial Relations Department must immediately step in and take Utusan Malaysia to task for unashamedly intimidating the newly-elected NUJ president Hata Wahari with baseless allegations of misconduct against him which has nothing to do with his employment as a senior journalist of the newspaper.
Utusan’s highly irregular action of resorting to a so-called domestic inquiry, which may result in Hata’s sacking, is bad labour practice. It is a wilful violation of Hata’s human right to reasonable security of his employment and his right to have a professional opinion and to express such an opinion without threats from his employers.
In an unprecedented display of arrogance, Utusan had also decided to be law unto itself by imposing restrictions on the physical movement of Hata during the period of the inquiry as if he was a restricted Internal Security Act detainee.
In another display of unreasonableness, Utusan has also denied Hata representation by his own union at the domestic inquiry. Utusan has also insisted on videotaping the inquiry proceedings but at the same time denying Hata the right to do likewise.
Utusan’s insanity can only lead to one conclusion; it wants to find any excuse to sack Hata at any cost. This Hata himself and the NUJ are well aware of and they are prepared to fight the ugly bully that Utusan has shown itself to be.
Utusan is known for its serial anti-union bashing tendencies, having previously arbitrary sacked a NUJ president, who was also an Utusan journalist, as well as the former chairman of the NUJ Utusan branch committee. It lost the former upon appeal to the courts by NUJ and the latter is under appeal.
The employers’ federation, of which Utusan is associated with, must forcibly persuade Utusan to desist from further provocative actions and to drop its so-called domestic inquiry in the interest of industrial harmony.
Hata was elected NUJ president in September last year and is outspoken about free and responsible journalism. In his first policy statement as president he said: “The union (NUJ) is asking all mainstream journalists, especially of Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian and The Star to return to their true function as deliverers of objective information to the public, and not as tools of propaganda for the government of any political party or individual, for their personal gain.”
He had also singled out Utusan for unethical journalism by playing up the race and religion card. This riled Utusan’s editors and Hata was immediately hauled up to face a domestic inquiry for allegedly tarnishing the newspaper’s image. The NUJ exco decided unanimously to fully back its president and said Utusan’s action is ludicrous.
At the core of the controversy is Hata’s action as NUJ president and not as an Utusan employee. Hence, Utusan has no right whatsoever to try to sack Hata for his opinion. If it has the courage, Utusan should sue both Hata and the NUJ for defamation to protect its image.
As NUJ president, Hata was expressing his opinion of the impact of bad journalism on working journalists and their welfare. It is his constitutional and human right as a union leader to form such an opinion and to express it. If Utusan’s internal auditor says that there’s something fishy about its account, we don’t sack him or her, do we? So when Hata said Utusan is bad surely, we don’t expect Utusan to sack him.
Utusan is also entitled to its right of reply. But Utusan chose to victimise both the NUJ and Hata instead of entering its defence in the court of public opinion. Utusan is both a lousy newspaper and a bad loser. A bully in short.
Utusan has lost all pretense to be a responsible and professional newspaper. It has litttle reputation to speak of. What Hata and the NUJ have to say about it is already public knowledge. The very fact that Hata and NUJ had said it shows the extent of Utusan’s rot.
The once respectable Malay daily has in recent years been resorting to gutter journalism, religious bigotry, racist, sexist, and seditious speech calculated clearly to incite one segment of society against another to the detriment of peace and harmony in the nation.
Far from trying to shore up its dropping sales by such irresponsible reporting, Utusan’s circulation has plummeted so much that its very commercial feasibility is now in question. It is no secret that it is generously endowed with advertising revenue from the government and government-linked corporations to keep it afloat.
Utusan is directly controlled by Umno, the dominant partner in the ruling coalition. That it enjoys the patronage of Umno is obvious. But patronage must have its limit. Utusan has exceeded this limit and must be taken to task.
* Bob Teoh is a freelance writer and was NUJ general-secretary (1984-86).
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
It is not that we like Pakatan Rakyat but it is just that UMNO refuses to change. The ordinary rakyat is fed up.
What has been the highlight of the idiots of UMNO recently ?
1. The return of Ummi Hafilda, on prime time news no less. This really has to be the joke of the century. This is the best that UMNO can do.
2. Syed Mokhtar to buy Northport . He owns everything . For whom ? He has debts in excess of RM25 Billion. UMNO says there is no danger to the banking system as his debt is fenced off. Please - we are not fools. A debt is a debt . He has breached the law on the single customer limit.When he was negotiating abroad for various projects , his Arab partners literally laughed at his incompetency.
The Saudi Arabai Jizan project partners literally could not believe that Syed Mokhtar was the best Malaysia cpould produce. The same with the proposed Zain Mobile deal with the Kuwaitis. The Kuwaitis were not willing t do business with such an idiot . The Iranian gas project collapsed as Syed Mokhtar did not deliver on any of his promises.
At a meeting with the Iranians he assured them his investment in Iran would be kept a secret from the UN and the Americans. How stupid can you get ? The Iranian JV was splashed on the front pages on Malaysian newspapers ?
This guy can only survive in Malaysia as he has the two key traits loved by UMNO - stupidity and corrupt. Syed Mokhtar buys assets and monopolies from the government and borrows from UMNO banks ie Bank Muamalat , Bank Islam and Bank Rakyat . He cant survive outside this system let alone Malaysia.
He does a lot of business with Rosmah Mansor. Mumtaz Jaaafar is Mokhtars key ally right now acting as go between for Rosmah Mansor. Please ask around. Mumtaz i sthe key gatekeeper for Rosmah.
I know all this as I had front seat audience of Syed Mokhtars dealings.
3. All we hear of UMNO nowadays is kahwin . Everyone is getting married. Taib Sarawak is married and the flaunting his billions in public. Macam mana Dato sak ?
UMNO is doomed. If UMNO is reelected Malaysia will be doomed.