Salleh: Did Mahathir air ABC’s Anwar show?

Mahathir and opposition reminded about their attacks on ‘lies’ and ‘agenda’ of Australian TV network.

(FMT) – Umno minister Salleh Said Keruak has derided Dr Mahathir Mohamad and opposition politicians for their praise of an Australian television network by pointing out that they had previously attacked the network for its “lies” and its “agenda”.

“When ABC reports about Mahathir, Anwar, the opposition, etc., they are lies. However, when ABC reports about Najib they are telling the truth. Is this what Mahathir is trying to say?” Salleh wrote in his blog this afternoon.

Salleh’s remarks were a riposte to a challenge by Dr Mahathir this morning for the government to air in full a 45-minute special report on the Prime Minister, Najib Razak, which was broadcast last week.

The report, by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Four Corners current affairs programme, was about corruption allegations surrounding Najib, and links to the 2006 murder of the Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu said to be implicated in an arms deal.

Dr Mahathir said the Four Corners report should be aired in full on government television so that Malaysians would know the truth.

Salleh, who is Sabah Umno deputy chairman, is also communications minister in Najib’s cabinet with responsibility for broadcasting.

He asked if Dr Mahathir now considered ABC as a reliable source, pointing out that Mahathir had not aired a special report by ABC about 16 years or so ago regarding Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial.

“It was actually a very well done documentary and it managed to raise many prudent questions regarding whether Anwar was a victim of a sham trial and was convicted based on fabricated evidence and false testimonies,” Salleh pointed out.

“Of course, at that time Mahathir did not agree that the special report on Anwar’s ‘sham trial’ should be aired on Malaysian TV,” Salleh said.

This time, however, Dr Mahathir wanted Najib “to be tried through the media and to be convicted in the court of public opinion”.

Salleh also pointed out that opposition politicians had later criticised ABC for producing “a pack of lies” and accusing it of having an agenda and being paid to smear Anwar and Parti Keadilan in another documentary which alleged that they were being financed by the same Arab sources implicated in the 911 attacks on the World Trade Centre towers in 2011.