Utusan ‘turned pig farm issue ugly’
by Soon Li Tsin, malaysiakini, Apr 14.
Selangor state executive councillor Teresa Kok is not pleased with Malay daily Utusan Malaysia for making her an ‘easy target’ over the modern pig farm project fiasco.
She criticised the paper for taking her blog comments out of context and making the modern pig farm issue in Selangor “ugly and distasteful to the Malay community.”
“I am now reluctant to take interviews from Utusan. On one hand we wish we could reach out to the Malay readers but on the other, our comments are being twisted and turned by them. I think whatever I say now will be used against me,” she said.
The proposed RM100 million hi-tech pig farm in Selangor at Ladang Tumbuk in the Kuala Langat district received massive coverage in the local Malay newspapers.
It carried statements from various NGOs and local residents who were against the project citing environmental, transparency and religious concerns.
teresa kok interview 140408 09Expressing her reluctance to comment further on the pig farm project on the outset when met, Kok appeared both upset and amused at times.
She explained that the entire controversy began when she blogged about being given five roast pigs from supporters in Salak South on March 19 to celebrate her elections victory.
She received 50 comments with almost half of them criticising her for being insensitive to the Muslim community. Resulting from this, one of her assistants cropped the picture and changed the title of the post.
‘Whack the bloggers’
On April 3, she rebutted those criticisms surrounding the roast pigs, saying she “did not understand why some people were sensitive about pigs and pork” as the animal was a creation of God too.
According to her, those few lines were meant to “whack the bloggers” that commented on her insensitivity for publishing pictures of the roast pigs.
“I’m my heart at that time, I was thinking why are people so sensitive about the roast pigs? This is the Chinese culture of celebration, from the goodwill of my supporters.
“This blog is something like my diary. I’m just displaying on my blog what has happened and it was not meant to offend the Muslims at all,” she asserted while pointing at her website on her laptop.
However, in the same blog post, she casually mentioned that the Selangor state exco meeting had approved a RM100 million modern pig farm in Kuala Langat.
“I felt so proud to see this decision being approved by our state excos. The exco who (is) in charge of (the) agriculture portfolio is Yaakob (Sapari) from PKR.
“He is an expert in the field of modern agriculture. I told the excos in the meeting (to) let the Selangor modern pig farm be an example to all other state governments,” she wrote.
‘Ugly and distasteful’
Two days later, Utusan reported that the state approved this modern pig farm, quoting Kok from her blog questioning why people are sensitive about pigs.
“They took my statements out of context and made it so ugly and distasteful especially for the Malay community,” she said.
Kok stressed that her statement regarding people’s sensitivity to pigs was in reference to the picture of the roast pigs in her blog, and not the pig farm project.
She explained that she did not mean to make the announcement on Yaakob’s behalf and hinted he will be making an announcement concerning a road show soon.
“I think he is going to say something about it but I feel reluctant to speak to Malaysiakini about the details because then I would be stepping into his portfolio.
“I didn’t mean to make an announcement on his behalf. I think it is better to let the Selangor menteri besar (Khalid Ibrahim) and Yaakob to comment further because they know best.
“This is a case of having a few lines in my blog being blown out of proportion and distorted by Utusan Malaysia. I feel as though I’m innocently being dragged into this whole fiasco,” she said.
The DAP publicity secretary also claimed that the recent protests against the pig farm project were initiated by Umno.
She also responded to former state menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo’s denial that the previous state government had approved the project by showing declassified exco meeting minutes.
It showed that the exco-Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) paper tabled on Jan 30, the former state government at that time had approved the acquisition of 136.41 hectres in Mukim Batu for the facility.
Not only that, why is she so i n a hurry to promote everything that is Chinese?? She is going to China next,..apparently to hook-in all the Chinese investors to Selangor!! Must be a joke…The Chinese want to oinvest in Selangor for what?? They have free lands, cheaper labour cost,…cheaper to produce,..bigger domestic market…What a kok-bull story!!
(Rajarome, do YOU know what you are talking about? NZ just signed a free trade agreement with China, being the first in the OECD to do so. Now why would NZ want this agreement? –poli101)
Comment by rajarome — Monday, 14-04-2008 @ 16: 01.59
inexperience - Pakatan Rakyat seriously needs a good PR firm
Comment by hamzah — Monday, 14-04-2008 @ 17: 19.47
Both are guilty. Kok, for her cockiness & Utusan for it’s racism & biasness!
(Have you met Teresa? How do you know she cocky? Are you just repeating lies, like Utusan? -poli101)
Comment by bt — Monday, 14-04-2008 @ 17: 59.11
I also haven’t met Teresa, but judging from her various statements over time, one garner from the various Blogs, I don’t detect anything particularly cocky about her. In fact I think she is rather mild, maybe even too mild.
Whereas the malay media papers from jalan riong have always acted very ultra, ever boldly spinning left and right because they’re the gomen mouth piece and has a special license to lie and instigate.
Comment by wits0 — Monday, 14-04-2008 @ 22: 43.35
looks like we have a lot of holier-than-thou people. Shame on them lah!
Comment by vchi — Tuesday, 15-04-2008 @ 11: 17.36
Teresa Kok is a woman, Chinese, senior DAP officer, won election by largest margin in GE13, senior exco of Selangor, Catholic, She would easily qualify as the No. 1 target of UMNO’s cybertrooper.
(Let’s not worry about Umno cybertroppers for now. Her own cybertroppers are shooting themselves, and her, in the foot.–poli101)
Comment by tyu — Tuesday, 15-04-2008 @ 11: 25.26
It seems all the people in the world other than the Muslims find pigs and pork a nutritious source of protein. The truth is of all the people in the world those who eat pork have longer life expectancy than those who refuse to eat pork. Refusing to eat pork obviously does not make the Muslim some kind of superior beings though they like to think so.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-04-2008 @ 17: 06.29
rajarome wrote:
Not only that, why is she so i n a hurry to promote everything that is Chinese?? She is going to China next,..apparently to hook-in all the Chinese investors to Selangor!! Must be a joke?The Chinese want to oinvest in Selangor for what?? They have free lands, cheaper labour cost,?cheaper to produce,..bigger domestic market?What a kok-bull story!!
I frankly am speachless at the prejudice of people like rajarome. What is he objecting to in Kok’s inviting the Chinese to invest in Malaysia? Is he so lacking of understanding that he cannot see that more Chinese investment means more employment for Malaysian workers - Malay workers - and more tax revenues for the Malaysian government?
Obviously rajarome objects to Chinese investment because he doesn’t like Chinese. And this is the root of the problem in Malaysia. This is what is keeping the Malaysian poor and jobless. Malays are poor because Malaysian economy is sick. And Malaysian economy is sick because the Chinese are marginalized. And with a sick Malaysian economy, the Malays have no jobs or have only low income jobs.
Kok should be given a medal for trying to develop the Malaysian economy and bring greater prosperity to Malaysia and higher incomes to all the Malaysians including the Malays. It is people like rajarome who are the real cause of Malaysian backwardness.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-04-2008 @ 17: 16.11
People like rajarome brlongs to the lunatic fringe - sent there by their own fevered bigotry.
Comment by wits0 — Friday, 18-04-2008 @ 23: 15.09
If Kok can succeeds to convince the Chinese to invest US$10 billion of their $1 trillion plus dollar foreign reserve in Malaysia, then that will create 1 million jobs directly and through the multiplier effect create 2 million to 3 million more jobs. This will immediately give a tremendous boost to the flagging Malaysian economy. Anybody who can create millions of jobs for the Malaysians obviously deserves a big medal and a debt of gratitude from those who directly benefited. Anybody who wishes Malaysia well certainly would wish Kok all success in her difficult task of convincing the Chinese to invest in Malaysia.
Comment by Liang1a — Saturday, 19-04-2008 @ 04: 27.58
This is a good opportunity to get rid of the NEP from Selangor. If Chinese investment is to be made in Selangor then there must be no restrictions or quotas on racial basis. In the end, Chinese investment will benefit all Malaysians including the Malays. And Malays will benefit from Chinese investments even without the NEP. NEP is actually redundant and suppressive and DECREASES investment and job creation which directly hurts the Malays. In the end the Malays are shooting themselves in the foot with their Malay supremacy dogma.
Comment by Liang1a — Sunday, 20-04-2008 @ 05: 36.59