DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has probably earned his second major retraction for alleged misreporting by news portal this year after PAS mouthpiece HarakaDaily humbly apologised to the former finance minister for claiming that a former DAP member who recently joined the Islamist party used to serve him as a special adviser.
On May 3, Guan Eng was remembered for soliciting an apology from pioneering news portal Malaysiakini which led to retraction of articles alleging an internal push to replace Penang’s state chief minister Chow Kon Yeow.
The latest retraction by HarakahDaily came about after Guan Eng’s political secretary Wong Hon Wai clarified that Mohamed Razali Abd Rahman had never held this position or any of the other positions reported in the said article.
“I would like to remind HarakahDaily and PAS that this news is slander and the personality mentioned that is Razali has never been a special adviser to Lim Guan Eng,” Wong had pointed out in a statement on Monday (June 25).
“I would also like to stress that Razali has never held any of the other positions as reported by HarakahDaily, whether in DAP or in the government. I ask HarakahDaily to retract this article and apologise to Lim within 48 hours, otherwise legal action will be taken.”
HarakahDaily had promptly apologised and retracted the article entitled “Bekas Penasihat Khas Guan Eng Sertai PAS” (Guan Eng’ Former Special Adviser joins PAS” which was published on June 23.
In its defence, the PAS mouthpiece claimed that it had relied “on existing records and did not update the validity of the information DAP submitted in 2016 regarding the status of the (Razali’s) position”.
“Therefore, HarakahDaily regrets this negligence and sincerely apologises to DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng and related parties as well as retract the published article.”
Given the intensity of animosity between PAS and DAP in the run-up to the six state polls this August – and the tendency of the former resorting to making slanderous or defamatory remarks against the latter – one wonders the amount of damage that the said article had inflicted on DAP’s reputation over the 72-hour period before it was retracted.
This is very much so as the advent of social media would mean that the said article had not only been made available on the HarakahDaily news portal but was also accessible via platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, etc in addition to be screenshot and disseminated via the popular WhatsApp messenger.
Therefore, it came as no surprise that the multi-racial netizens who left their comments on Guan Eng’s Facebook page, ‘instigated’ the Bagan MP to smaan terus (just sue without second thought) the news portal.
“Sue them. They keep on slandering and fitnah and if caught, they will apologise. It goes round and round, and never ends,” lamented netizen Marie Madrigal.
Perhaps, the most insightful comment came from Azman Abdullah Abdullah:
“It’s been a promise for years … the same promise come every election. We the KELANTANESE sons will never vote for PAS again. God, I’m STUPID if I still believe in PAS.
“The water is still dirty. The state is still poor. Its sons have to travel country-wide looking for sustenance. How nice if there’s ample sustenance in your own state.
“PAS leaders are rich, stylish on their luxury cars, their specially filtered water, they live in luxury houses in Kuala Lumpur with their children. Only occasionally visit their constituencies.
“I won’t trust you anymore. Will not vote for PAS again. I shall remain a Muslim without PAS.” – June 27, 2023
