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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Malaysiakini journalist anti-Lim Guan Eng?

Don’t know whether it’s just my imagination but it seems there is a Malaysiakini journalist who appears (at least to me) to be ‘hostile’ to Lim Guan Eng and the DAP, but very favourable to PKR.

He writes under the name of Athi Veeranggan. I am not sure whether another Athi (Athi Shankar) would be the same person – a sweetie told me they are one and the same person.

For example, in Malaysiakini article Anwar backs Lim to find win-win solution on 02 July 2009, he wrote:

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today issued several 'friendly' press statements in an apparent damage control exercise to subdue mounting criticisms against the Penang Pakatan Rakyat government in its handling of the Kampung Buah Pala crisis.

Speaking at a packed media conference in his Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency, the PKR leader tried his best not to inflict more harm on the embattled Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Lim is currently facing swelling attacks from various quarters over his failure to resolve the crisis involving the residents of the 200-year-old heritage village.

Yet when one reads what Anwar Ibrahim said, which went like so:

"Lim's government is working overtime to unveil a win-win formula to resolve the crisis amicably," Anwar told journalists at his office in Yayasan Aman, Penanti. Anwar said that a solution which would not hamper development and at the same time protect the villager's interests must be found.

He offered his sympathy to the frustrated villagers, adding that their predicament was caused by the previous Barisan Nasional state government.

"It is wrong for all quarters to put the blame solely on Pakatan government," he said.

He said he felt the previous government had been unwise and committed several errors when it alienated and subsequently sold the village land for RM3.21 million to cooperative society Koperasi Pegawai-Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan Pulau Pinang.

"The current government is legally tied down by the previous administrative decision. Lim's government's task now is to explore a conclusive way to resolve the problem," he said."What's more important is the end product ... the ultimate solution to end it," he said.

Touching on the exorbitant land valuation figure, some RM150 million, given by Lim to acquire the village land, Anwar claimed that the price of land can rocket sky high due to development taking place on the site.

He pointed out the alleged land scam investigation carried out by Deputy Chief Minister Mansor Othman pertaining to the village land deals demonstrated Lim's government commitment to end the impasse.

Reading above, I wonder what Athi Veeranggan had meant by “… the PKR leader tried his best not to inflict more harm on the embattled Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.”

His statement of Anwar ‘trying his best not to inflict more harm on Guan Eng’ sounded as if Anwar had nothing nice to say about the Penang CM, but I see in Anwar's press statements nothing other than praises for Guan Eng.

It’s a pity I wasn’t able to search for the same piece of news in The Malaysian Insider which I had also read, because its link here would have shown there wasn’t the ‘slant’ that Athi had attempted to project, namely, of Anwar graciously ‘going easy on Lim Guan Eng’.

If one were to go through his (Athi's) articles on the DAP and Lim Guan Eng, in particular in relation to the Kg Buah Pala crisis, one might see what I believe to be the case, of a Malaysiakini jorunalist who has been rather anti Lim GE.

My two sens of observation anyway. I do wonder whether Lim GE had stepped on Athi's toes before?

10 comments:

  1. I'm glad I'm not alone ;-)

    I have certainly taken notice of this name as well. The first time he (she?) captured my interest was with the report on the DAP SA rep who was caught having copied some SA questions from the previous Gerakan chap... okayla, naughty of him...

    But the headline and introductory paragraph were RIDICULOUSLY over the top, proclaiming "serious dents" in the DAP's CAT philosophy. I recently checked up on the article and the headline had been changed some time after the piece debuted, which means it was changed after the vast majority of people had already seen the outrageous and judgmental headline (and 95% probably didn't read more than that).

    Since then there have been others. I wish I had time to catalogue all these. I hope and pray that the DAP is doing so.

    Malaysiakini news. They report. They decide. You sokong Anwar saja. PAHAM!!??

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  2. No, Lim GE had not stepped on Athi's toes before. However, he had accidentally trod on Athi's cow's hoof before and that's why Athi's damn angry.

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  3. I don't know... I really think that Malaysiakini is getting more and more Anwarista or pro-PKR... Just look at how it was covering the PKR congresses... hmmmm...

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  4. I have been having the same view on Malaysiakini reporting which tends to portray DAP badly for quite sometime now. Good that you pick this up. I'm thinkign whether I should continue the subscription comes October.

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  5. I have stopped subscribing. It is bad enough that the MSM is in the 'slanting' business, but to have Malaysiakini doing the same is too much.

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  6. my subscription expires this month.
    am also considering whether or not to renew my subsciption

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  7. typical response from a chinese

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  8. Does Mkini actually make a substantially large portion of it's income from subscriptions? Or is it advertising?

    The "read headlines enough la" attitude can be seen in any form of media, whatmore when the headlines are free and you have to pay for the full story.

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  9. Good to see you still kicking the kelings asses.

    Thanks for looking out for us brother.

    Let's meet up again soon.

    - CX

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  10. Hmmm! I think you're just being paranoid.

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