KJ & MCA - malaysiakini & Star

Yesterday I posted Wee & the wee weenie minds, using Wee Meng Chee’s surname (tongue in cheek) to paint (pun) the sorry affair.

Today I see the Star Online using Wee’s surname in the same play, as evident in its headline Just a wee issue, say Liow and Khairy.

Once a dear friend (or could it be a once-dear friend) informed me that the Star Online also ‘borrowed’ another of my original creations, ‘cyber-jihadist’.

Hmmm, someone at the Star Online has been reading my posts ;-) – well, they’re welcome to use kaytee’s ‘originals’ – mind you, not that the English word ‘wee’ is a kaytee original though I did start using it to illustrate Wee Meng Chee's case in Negarakuku - no longer a Wee issue.

In the Star Online news, the BN partners of UMNO and MCA have claimed it’s a ‘wee’ issue not to be blown out of proportion – hmmm, wonder who started the unnecessary escalation, leading to what must have been a traumatic experience for the poor worried parents of Wee? Mr Wee Snr would probably tell you the pressure and effect on him and his family weren’t ‘wee’ issues.

UMNO Youth No 2 Khairy Jamaluddin said in conciliatory fashion after the MCA Youth General Assembly: “There should be restraint in this matter and we must not sensationalise too much. We need to look at it rationally.”

Anyway, that’s the Star Online version. I’ll get to a different version shortly.

MCA Youth Chief Liow Tiong Lai pointed out that there should not be so much pressure exerted on Wee as he was just a student and he had already apologised. Minister of Information Zainuddin Maidin shared that same assessment very earlier in the unnessary saga, but he had the rug pulled from under his feet by his UMNO colleague, Nazri, Minister in the PM Department.

But as a face saving agreement (the Star version again) it was reported that “the two youth leaders also urged all quarters to allow the Attorney-General to look into the matter and not jump to any conclusion about what the decision would be.”

Quite frankly I don’t see what’s there for teh AG to look into. Mind you, I am not excusing or supporting Wee Meng Chee for what he had done. My stand is that it’s hardly worth the attention of the government or, even more embarrassing, the Malaysian cabinet. There are far more pressing issues for the cabinet to be attending to, like corruption, crime rate, cronyism, contractual dodginess and all the ‘c’ words you can think of.

Meanwhile, malaysiakini reported that at the MCA Youth annual meet, its Chief Liow asserted in a blustering manner that there was No 'master and slave' in BN.

He declared: “We in MCA and MCA Youth won’t be easily bullied by others, ren bu fan wo, wo bu fan ren; ren ruo fan wo, wo bi fan ren.”

According to malaysiakini, the Chinese saying loosely translates into how one who is offended would retaliate.

He added: “In the ‘BN family’, we are brothers, there is no master and slave, there is no question of who is being scared of who or whom should kowtow to whom.”

MCA knows it’s going to cop it sweet from the angry Chinese voters, especially at the Federal level. I reckon the MCA will continue to be safe in State seats though the series of UMNO provocations have well and truly tested the patience of the humiliated Chinese. Many younger Chinese are waiting to lash out, to the benefit of the DAP and perhaps PKR, or even PAS.

malaysiakini also reported differently from the Star Online as in Beh Li Yih’s Khairy ‘speechless’ over MCA Youth’s antics.

I have two things to say about this – let’s get the easy one out of the way. KJ didn’t/doesn’t understand Chinese so he had to wait for a translated copy before he could comment on Liow’s assertive declaration.

Could it be that the Star Online report, being a latter edition than malaysiakini’s embrace KJ’s opportunity to read, digest and comment on what had been said by Liow?

Or, has the Star version been the usual (sorry, I am becoming skeptical of Malaysian mainstream media) MCA euphemistic spin?

I have no doubt many of you have already formed your opinion.

On the second thing I need to say about Beh’s article, I need to qualify first of all that I rely heavily on malaysiakini news for greater accuracy and truth. But I was disappointed with Beh’s (or perhaps the editor’s) choice of headlines, which carried the impression that KJ was rendered ‘speechless’ (struck dumb) by Liow’s comments.

Now, that’s patently not true because as mentioned, KJ couldn’t comment as he didn’t understand Mandarin, the language Liow used in delivering those strong assertive words.

In fact, in the body of the news article, Beh wrote: “Despite sitting through the two-hour-long opening ceremony of the annual MCA Youth meet in Malacca today, the Umno Youth deputy leader was in the dark on the content of the MCA leaders’ speeches as they were mostly delivered in Mandarin.”

Now, as a blogger I am as guilty as anyone of sometimes dishing out juicy provocative titles (or headlines) to some of my postings – obviously to grab the readers’ attention. But a newspaper is not a blog.

So I would advise malaysiakini not to indulge in this form of sensationalising publicity – leave those flamboyant, flammable and fiery headlines to the other newspapers.

malaysiakini is currently respected by discerning readers as reliable and factual (as reasonably could be). Once a newspaper indulges too much in these sort of misleading but attention grabbing headlines, it is actually dumbing itself down, and it won’t be before long it degenerates into a one of those gossipy tabloid type.

Now I am not too sure what has been KJ’s reaction. Which news do I rely on?