Musa turns up heat on media

FMT

Sabah Chief Minister comes down hard on publications reporting news detrimental to his administration.

KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman has shown his vicious iron fist to come down hard on the local media and journalists in the state.

They are feeling the heat from chief minister’s office for doing what they have been hired to do and what their bosses and readers expect of them – reporting news without fear or favour.

Several said they were instructed to write in a certain way and not to highlight Barisan Nasional (BN) problems and to play down criticism of his administration.

Various “arm-twisting” methods have also been employed, according to sources, by the chief minister’s press officers to force newspaper owners to comply with his ‘rules’.

“The feeling is that Musa wants everyone to adhere to the New Sabah Times (controlled by Musa) style of reporting,” said a journalist.

“How are we going perform if we not allowed to our jobs… that is to report the news fairly and accurately? We can’t suppress opposition news and views,” said the journalist.

Musa’s wariness of bad press comes in the wake of renewed criticism of his administration from within his own BN coalition. He has been accused of taking on a dictatorial stance and playing one coalition party against the other.

Most of the local media have gone to town with the reported self-destruction within the ruling coalition.
In an effort to rectify his recent missteps, Musa has reportedly asked his officers to stop the newspapers from publishing ‘negative’ reports about his decisions.

Talk is that even the forestry department has been roped in to enforce the chief minister’s ‘censorship’ demands.

According to a story making the rounds, a senior forestry department official had a ‘quiet talk’ with the boss of local newspapers about their coverage.

It was perceived as a threat to the newspaper company which also has a sister outfit granted a ‘Forestry Management Unit’ or FMU by the state after approval by the forestry department.

Rewarding party-hoppers

KTS Plantation Sdn Bhd, the sister company of See Hua Marketing Sdn Bhd which publishes Utusan Borneo (Bahasa Malaysia), See Hua Daily News (Chinese), Borneo Post (English), is among those granted an FMU at Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve by the government.

Musa, who is the state BN chairman, came under criticism from Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and even MCA leaders for rewarding ‘party-hopping’ within the coalition and appointing Yee Moh Chai of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) as deputy chief minister.

The news was highlighted in the local papers along with severe criticism of the decision much to the government’s embarrassment.

PBS leader and deputy chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan was forced to defend Musa for elevating another member of his party to deputy chief minister at the expense of LDP.

But Musa has also taken flak for keeping two BN members, Raymond Tan and Peter Pang, both of who were former deputy chief ministers who quit their parties, in his cabinet.

While Tan quit SAPP after it left the ruling coalition in 2008, Pang quit LDP after the party had a quarrel with Musa.

He recently joined peninsula-based party, Gerakan, just as Tan did earlier and was retained as a minister by Musa in his recent Cabinet reshuffle.