CHIEF Minister Lim Guan Eng has given the News Sunday Times and Berita Harian 48 hours to retract their lies on the mufti issue and to apologise openly, failing which he will take action.
At a press conference in his office today, Lim labelled the two media as “master liars” and said they are experts at that.
“We are very open. Even when we did not invite certain media and they still come to our press conferences, we do not chase them away. This is unlike BN,” Lim said.
The New Sunday Times, the Sunday edition of New Straits Times (NST), reported the following on Feb 5: “Political Intervention was real, PAS says” and claimed that Lim interfered with the appointment of the mufti and changed the mufti.
Meanwhile, Berita Harian also printed the same lies.
“This is totally untrue. I am not involved in the appointment because this is a suggestion by exco member Datuk Malik (exco member Datuk Abdul Malik Abul Kassim) after he had obtained the recommendation from Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. I give the two media 48 hours. NST and BH had slandered. This issue is big and involves racial matters,” Lim said.
“They want to cover the failure of PAS in administrating Kelantan. It is a failed state. One hundred acres of jungle are cleared and even the Orang Asli have been evicted. Looks like PAS is using baseless allegations to achieve its agenda and the media has reported the lies. When PAS leaders slander, they print it. The reason why these people slander is because the papers print their lies. Therefore, the papers have to bear the responsibilities,” he added.
“I give them 48 hours to apologise publicly and retract their lies. Otherwise, I shall take action,” he said.
Lim also pointed out that readers are aware that the mainstream media prints such lies, as shown by the falling readership of both above newspapers.
“The circulation of New Straits Times has fallen to about 60,000 daily compared to some 150,000 about five years ago. So people do not buy such lies easily and the ‘master liars’ are paying for it,” he said.
On Feb 12, Lim had announced that he will proceed with the legal suit as both of the media did not respond to his demand for an apology and retraction.
Lim said: “See you in court. It seems that NST, although having seen a drop in readership, still has a lot of money to pay for defamation costs. Both media have lost so many cases but they have money to pay.”