UMNO Youth online cartoon outrageous, terribly bad taste and pure fitnah

The UMNO Youth online cartoon, depicting me and other Opposition leaders like Karpal Singh, Anwar Ibrahim, Hadi Awang and Nik Aziz as champions of Chin Peng, is not only extremely insensitive, terribly bad taste in Malaysia’s plural society, outrageous but also pure fitnah.

Superimposing the photographs of Ronnie Liu, Karpal, Anwar, Hadi, Nik Aziz and myself on the cover of Chin Peng’s 2003 book, My Side Of History, the UMNO Youth online cartoon, which went up yesterday, is a shame to the profession of political cartooning.

The Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs (MAYC), through its Federal Territory Deputy Chairman Datuk Mahada Shukur lodged a police report against Ronnie yesterday for his statement of 2.9.05, although Ronnie had clarified in a statement on 5.9.2005 that he had always accepted Tunku Abdul Rahman as Bapa Merdeka and that his statement never said and he never recognized Chin Peng as “the real fighter for independence”.

Will MAYC and Mahada now lodge a police report against UMNO Youth for its political cartoon of fitnah against Ronnie, Karpal, Anwar, Hadi, Nik Aziz and myself or is MAYC merely a political stooge and appendage to certain powers-that-be?

I agree with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz who said two days ago that it is a “no brainer” to debate whether Tunku Abdul Rahman or Chin Peng is Bapa Merdeka. There can be no doubt whatsoever who is Bapa Merdeka – Tunku. In fact, nobody ever claimed that Chin Peng is Bapa Merdeka. I thank Nazri for highlighting the ridiculous length some UMNO and UMNO Youth leaders are prepared to go in trying to extract political mileage from Ronnie’s statement, completely disregarding his clarification in his second statement.