Questions on Utusan’s ‘celebrate May 13’ shot down

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid, Free Malaysia Today

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia today disallowed questions by opposition MPs on the government’s inaction against Utusan Malaysia over its controversial call to celebrate the May 13 riot as a “sacred” day.

According to Pandikar, DAP Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran’s question directed at Deputy Home Minister Wira Abu Seman was aimed at seeking the latter’s personal opinion on the matter.

“You are asking (for) his personal view, nothing to do with the ministry. It’s a hypothetical question. I will not allow this question. I don’t want. You (the deputy minister) don’t have to reply,” he said.

The speaker also shot down an attempt to plead for a rational perspective on the raised point by another DAP MP, opposition stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

Lim said the question raised by his DAP colleague was not hypothetical but involved what he felt was clear evidence of open racial provocation.

Pandikar however reiterated that the question posed was personal in nature.

In an editorial published yesterday, Utusan’s deputy editor-in-chief Zaini Hassan suggested that the racial riots which left hundreds dead were a blessing in disguise.

If not for the riots, he said, the Bumiputeras would remain in poverty and the nation’s wealth would be controlled “by one race only” in an allusion to the Chinese.

The opposition had described the article, along with several other articles which had appeared in the Umno-owned daily, as being seditious and called for action to be taken.