“While politicians rarely agree on anything, one thing that did unite them earlier this month was a Bloomberg opinion piece. Titled “Malaysia is staggering down the road to failed statehood”, the outrage at the slur on national dignity was felt across the spectrum. It wasn’t just the government fighting back, led by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who wrote a rebuttal that was widely published, including in The Straits Times in neighbouring Singapore.
The sting was perceived by government critics as well…..
Others managed to find some humour in the brouhaha. Referencing a veteran opposition leader who has been making doomsday predictions about Malaysia – including that it was becoming a “failed state” – for as long as anyone can remember, one online commenter wrote: “Oh please tell me Lim Kit Siang is the owner of Bloomberg now.”
What prompted this strange – and offensive – judgement on the country’s health appears to have been that Malaysians who are in dire need of food and money have taken to waving white flags outside their homes. This, the writer thought, was “a shorthand for discontent at the atrophying state and troubled economy”.
[Sholto Byrnes – Opinion, The National]
It is surely something of a slip on the part of this ‘freelance writer’ cum ‘think tank member’ cum PR man to raise the somewhat delicate matter of ownership when it comes to the alleged slant of articles.
Having sneered at Bloomberg along such lines he would have done well to mention who owns The National for whom he wrote this surprising piece declaring that everyone in Malaysia is united in rejecting the concept that the country is approaching failed statehood.
It is called declaring an interest since the owner of The National is an old friend of Malaysia’s present coup coalition leadership, namely Sheikh Mansour of the UAE.
Indeed, one of the first actions of the present PN government after Mahiaddin’s surprise appointment by the Agong (a bosom buddy of Mansour’s brother MBS) was to suspend a six billion dollar legal action against their company IPIC. There are favours owed, therefore, as PN seeks to defend itself against the damning verdict of a Bloomberg writer.
Mr Byrnes writes his own opinions to order, as SR has previously examined in his earlier capacity working for Najib’s PR man Paul Stadlen, who remains currently on the run from an arrest warrant in the UK over 1MDB.
So, having apparently performed this service for the Prince Mansour owned paper to help boost the image of PN in the Middle East, he would have done well to avoid casting aspersions on established correspondents working for established news organisations.
It has only drawn attention to his own record in this department and to the sincerity of this article ‘jokingly’ attacking Bloomberg for apparent bias.