KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 ― DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang today said Umno Supreme Council should take responsibility and clear up Utusan Malaysia’s financial mess.
He said the Umno Supreme Council should find a solution to Utusan’s financial situation, instead of letting its journalists become scapegoats of the party’s kleptocracy and incompetence.
“The council must not be allowed to run away from its responsibilities to Utusan’s journalists, nor should it use its loss in the 14th general elections on May 9 last year as an excuse to dismiss the journalists, unless the party will itself dissolve,” Lim said in a statement.
He agreed with National Union of Journalists secretary Basir Abu Bakar, who had said that the person leading the company must be committed to saving Utusan.
Former executive chairman Datuk Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, who resigned in Dec 13, has been urged by the newspaper’s staff to return and finish his job of saving Utusan from financial ruin.
“It is unfair for the management to sideline its former employees who for many years had contributed to the company and sacrificed in order to keep the country’s oldest Malay newspaper afloat,” Lim said.
Yesterday, several anonymous Utusan staff members released a statement claiming the Umno-owned newspaper will soon finish the first round of voluntary separation scheme payments by this week.
