KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Malaysia’s High Commissioner to the UK Datuk Ahmad Rasidi Hazizi called out London-based The Economist for publishing erroneous articles on Malaysia recently.
He asserted that the international business and current affairs weekly was perpetuating an “arrogant” colonial mindset in its approach to news on Malaysia, a former colony that became independent over half a century ago.
“Your recent articles on Malaysia contained serious errors and reeked of an arrogant colonial mindset, disparaging our prime minister, government, police, judiciary, election commission, media and even our voters,” he said in an open letter carried by The Economist on its website today.
Ahmad took umbrage at two of the magazine’s March 10 articles on the coming Malaysian elections titled “Stop, thief” and “Tilting the playing field”, which he said was based on falsehoods pushed by the Opposition alleging gerrymandering in the electoral boundary redrawing exercises.
He said the redelineation process was based on democratic principles as practised in the West, adding that The Economist showed double standards by homing in and misreporting the Malaysian exercise.
“Your allegation would imply that numerous democracies are guilty of the same charge, not least Britain, where significant constituency changes are expected in advance of the next election.
“In Malaysia these changes were proposed and implemented by the independent Election Commission and subsequently approved by the judiciary, whose impartiality is evidenced by the fact that it frequently rules against the government and senior ministers,” he said.
Ahmad also told off the magazine for misreporting facts on the US Department of Justice’s investigations into Malaysian funds.
He pointed out that the US DOJ had never accused Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of “siphoning” funds nor suggested that the funds were a “gift from an unnamed admirer” as The Economist had published in its articles.
“In fact, the prime minister and numerous officials have stated that the funds — the vast majority of which were returned — were a donation from the royal family of Saudi Arabia.
“This has been confirmed by the Saudi foreign minister, who has publicly stated that the funds were ‘a genuine donation with nothing expected in return’ and that the Saudi authorities consider the matter closed,” he said.
Ahmad Rasidi went on to tell the “true story of Malaysia”, which he said is experiencing economic and governmental reforms undertaken by the Najib administration since 2009.
“Since Najib took office in 2009, Malaysia’s gross national income has increased by more than 50 per cent, 2.3 million jobs have been created, unemployment and inflation have been kept low and poverty reduced significantly.
“Indeed, the Malaysian economy is growing at such a fast rate that the World Bank had to increase its estimates for our growth three times over 2017, to 5.8 per cent.
“The government’s plan for the economic well-being and security of Malaysia and its people is delivering,” he said.
