KUALA LUMPUR: Utusan Malaysia has called on Malaysiakini to “apologize” to all Malaysians over allegation that the news portal is financed by currency speculator George Soros.

In Mingguan Malaysia  – the weekend edition of Utusan Malaysia – today, Awang Selamat, a pseudonym for the paper's editors, also asked if Malaysiakini intends to cease being “a tool of foreigners”.

“With all the proof, do not claim to be an independent news portal. It is akin to shooting yourself in the foot.

“There is still time for (the portal) to return back to the right path as this involves the sovereignty of the nation,” wrote the unidentified columnist.

He blamed the alleged foreign funders for the “anti-government” stories that he claimed were supportive of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Utusan had been on a campaign running various allegations against Malaysiakini that include reports of a former Malaysiakini editor YL Chong alleging the Soros link by suggesting that one of the portal’s directors Harlan M Mandel is a “Soros man”.

However, the pro-government daily has not carried any reports on Malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran’s clarifications and rebuttals of the allegations.

It has also not reported that former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had made amends with Soros and had even once asked the billionaire to support his anti-war programme Global Peace Forum.

Premesh noted that the accusations made now are a rerun of the campaign 11 years' ago that had been amply rebutted, and questioned the mainstream media for linking Mandel with Soros.  


Perkasa: Mandel Financed Bala Meet

Meanwhile, expanding on the Jewish conspiracy theory, Malay rights pressure group Perkasa has demanded Subang Jaya MP Sivarasa Rasiah and also lawyer M Puravalen to explain whether their meeting on July 2, 2008 with former private investigator P Balasubramaniam and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin was financed by Mandel.

Mingguan Malaysia also reported Perkasa's information chief Ruslan Kassim alleging that Mandel and Soros were financing the “slander” of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“Malaysians have the right to know who financed this agenda to smear the country, government and its leaders,” said Ruslan, also questioning who had financed the cost of the alleged fake photograph of murdered Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu with Najib.

It was reported that Puravalen has denied reports made in the New Straits Times and also Utusan Malaysia and has sent legal letters to the two pro-government dailies to demand an apology or face a lawsuit.

Previously, Malaysiakini has disclosed that Mandel only joined the portal as a director last year after he took helm as the Media Development Loan Fund, one of Malaysiakini's investors.

- Malaysiakini