The opposition’s reliance on foreign media reports to bring down the country’s leaders is seen as a threat that could undermine the country’s democratic system, says Umno supreme council member Mahdzir Khalid.
He described the opposition’s move of using foreign media reports to bring down Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as unfair. Mahdzir said this when asked to comment on the action of former Sarawak Tribune editor, Lester Melanyi (photo, below), confessing that reports by Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown on Najib all this while were nothing but lies.
“The problem in Malaysia is when there are those who take news conveyed in perspective without knowing its truth and authenticity, this makes it easier for the foreign media to continue to report lies for the purpose of inciting the people. “The opposition also conveniently takes these foreign media reports to be made into issues to fight the country’s leaders.
By right, we have to first verify whether the information is correct, otherwise, this is what happens,” he told reporters…… “Maybe, after this, many more details will emerge to prove that the allegations against Najib are untrue, However, I’m sure people will always support the country’s leaders as they realise that all these are all lies,” Mahdzir said.
Last Saturday, Melanyi told a press conference that Rewcastle-Brown’s accusation against Najib of paying RM9.5 million to lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was not true, and that the report was written out of personal motive. Melanyi then requested he be given a few weeks to submit evidence on the matter.
It took Sarawak Report less than 24 hours to debunk Kuching’s sozzled drunk, Lester Melanyi’s garbled ravings last time he stuck his head above the parapet. We proved he was an entertaining liar and that his ‘sources’ were rubbish.
He clearly needs another handout and has therefore been prepared to conduct another of his ‘press conferences’. Lester we forgive you.
Our reporting, to the contrary, is backed by the sort of evidence that UMNO’s bigwigs plainly do not wish to see discussed in court. Moreover, the details on the Shafee payment and others made by the Prime Minister were in the hands of many others, as UMNO bosses are well aware, before we received and published it. The Wall Street Journal and ABC Australia published many of the details from these documents early last year.
So, we have our witnesses and a string of sources. If we did not, the whole of UMNO would have charged to court months ago eager to prove us and others to be lying. In fact, why even bother go to court when you can publish the truth and unmask the liar, like we did when we dispensed with Lester within 24 hours back in 2015?
Rest assured, if Shafee had NOT been paid RM9.5 million we would have heard by now and been shown the proof.
So, Melanyi’s press conference and the reliance of this UMNO spokesman on such an embarrassing character is clear evidence they have a very big problem. It shows the only ‘witness’ they have been able to bring to their defence over the PM’s corrupt payments is Ludicrous Lester, who has spent the last 5 years sloping round the bars and tea houses of Kuching and hardly knows his right hand from his left foot.
You bet he has asked for a ‘few weeks’ (read several months/forever) to produce the evidence to back up his latest rambling allegations. He will have taken the payment for the press conference in advance however.