Malaysian PM's office raps 'AWSJ' over picture mix-up
Malaysian PM's office raps 'AWSJ' over picture mix-up
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's office on Tuesday
complained to The Asian Wall Street Journal after it ran a
picture of a top terrorist suspect which it identified as
Mahathir.
The illustration of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, allegedly the al-
Qaeda mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United
States, was carried in an article on Malaysia in the AWSJ on
Monday and captioned "Mahathir Mohamad".
The newspaper published a correction Tuesday saying: "The
error was entirely unintentional and wasn't intended to make any
implications concerning anyone in Malaysia."
The government of mainly-Muslim Malaysia is extremely
sensitive to any suggestions that the country has links to
international terrorism and has detained dozens of alleged
Islamic militants in the past two years.
Mahathir himself, a regular and bitter critic of alleged
Western media bias against his country, has won praise from the
White House for his support in the war on terrorism.
The prime minister's office wrote to the AWSJ editor in Hong
Kong, Reginald Chua, to say it was appalled by the paper's
"callous disregard for accuracy", the official Bernama news
agency reported on Tuesday.
The letter, signed by Mahathir's principal private secretary
Badariah Arshad, acknowledged the AWSJ's correction but added:
"However, we feel it necessary to put on record our
dissatisfaction."
The prime minister's office "sincerely hoped that there was no
element of mischief on the part of the newspaper", Bernama said.
Pointing out that the AWSJ used a Malaysian flag to accompany
a story about Indonesia some six months ago, Badariah said:
"While this office prefers to give you the benefit of the doubt,
it is nonetheless most disconcerting that the AWSJ continues to
commit such obvious errors when it comes to reporting on
Malaysia."
Neither the newspaper nor the prime minister's office referred
to the real identity of the picture's subject, but it was pointed
out by The New Straits Times daily here and is clearly Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, who is in U.S. custody after having been
captured in Pakistan recently.
The New Straits Times noted that the illustration of a
"balding man with a beard" did not "at all resemble clean-shaven
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who has a full head of hair."
No doubt adding to the government's irritation is the fact
that the article which accompanied the picture was about the
rejection last week of an appeal by Mahathir's former deputy,
Anwar Ibrahim, against his conviction and nine-year jail sentence
for sodomy.
The article described the failure of the appeal as "stripping
the country's opposition of a potential leader at a time when
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad prepares to retire."
Anwar says he was framed to prevent a political challenge to
Mahathir, who is due to retire in October after 22 years as prime
minister. The government denies the allegation.