Nanyang Siang Pau apologises

KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau has apologised to Speaker of Dewan Rakyat Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang for publishing a cartoon deemed insulting to the two leaders.

The newspaper, in a statement yesterday, said they apologised and admitted that the cartoon was inappropriate for public viewing.

“We have also withdrawn the same cartoon published in Nanyang Siang Pau news portal, eNanyang.my,” according to the statement.

On April 8, the newspaper and its news portal published a cartoon featuring two monkeys sitting on a tree named ‘Act 355’ while a group of monkeys fight under it.

One of the monkeys on the tree dons a ‘songkok’ and is labelled ‘speaker’, while the other one has a ‘serban’ and is labelled “Hadi Awang”.

The cartoon was published in the newspaper two days after Abdul Hadi tabled his Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts ( Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 355 on April 6.

In Putrajaya, the chief executive officer of the Malaysian Institute for Strategic Studies on Islam ( IKSIM), Datuk Mahamad Naser Disa said the apology from Nanyang Siang Pau for the publication of the caricature was insufficient.

“The apology alone is insufficient but stern action should be taken by the Home Affairs Ministry and the Royal Malaysia Police so that such incident will not be repeated,” he said.

He added that the Dewan Rakyat Speaker was a symbol of an institution and he was the head of the Dewan Rakyat, thus how could he be portrayed as a monkey.

It was definitely an insult that was seditious in nature, Naser said at a ceramah with media representatives here yesterday. — Bernama