‘NO TRUTH TO REPORT ON BN SUSPENSION’
Umno sec-gen admonishes news portal over misreporting
UMNO has denied a report by a news portal which claimed that Barisan Nasional had been suspended temporarily to allow space for its component parties to look into the possibility of other political cooperation.
The party’s secretary-general, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, deemed the report by the portal as being unethical and added that the portal’s journalists should have checked with him on the truth of such a claim.
“The news (about BN to be suspended temporarily) is not true, as there was no such decision. BN had never been suspended. This is the problem with such news.
“What is its objective? Why run such a news that BN was suspended? When was it ever suspended?”
“Don’t quote my name (in such a report). This is unethical. You interviewed me and then you wrote the story, this is unfair. You should have looked at the context of the whole, but instead you took that which was outside its context,” he told the New Straits Times Press yesterday.
Annuar said the interview with the portal was on the issue of MCA using its own logo in the Balakong by-election, instead of using the BN logo.
The Ketereh member of parliament said the interview did not touch on BN’s alleged suspension.
“If there are some things which are unclear, clarify with me. This is not a small matter.
“Firstly, I am not the BN secretary-general and secondly, BN involves other parties. How can I issue a statement that BN was suspended without the knowledge of other BN members?
“People will say that I have gone crazy. Was the Umno secretarygeneral not aware of his responsibility? This is not good. BN being suspended is not true. If BN was indeed suspended, it is a big story. Please check (the facts) beforehand.”