The Star Saga, Episode II: The Clones Push On

In Episode I, which was reported about a week ago (see 30 June entry below) after R. Nadeswaran of theSun started raising questions about Selangor’s claim of being a “fully developed” state, two things unravelled in quick succession.

One, the National Productivity Corporation (NPC), which performed a study that became the basis of the Selangor claim, told theSun that they did not come up with the claim. What’s more, theSun found out that the study’s link to a Swiss institute, as reported by The Star, was bogus. theSun also reported that the public was critical of the NPC study for falling short of the standards of sound research and lacking ethical integrity.

And two, despite all that, the Selangor Mentri Besar was not bothered. Rather, he said he took it upon himself to concoct the claim of developed status for Selangor.

This prompted Nadeswaran to chastise the Mentri Besar in his Citizen Nades column on 6 July. Just the same, the Mentri Besar still planned to go ahead with the celebration bash.

This was duly reported by The Star yesterday. Nothing wrong with that. But The Star failed to perform its duty in a socially responsible manner; it did not state anywhere in the report that Selangor’s “developed” ranking was an arbitrary concoction of the Mentri Besar. It, of course, also ignored public criticism made against the action of the Mentri Besar.

Furthermore, The Star ended the report by quoting the Mentri Besar as saying that the NPC would have to answer to any criticism of the NPC study because Selangor state had not interfered in the study.

Certainly, the NPC has much to answer for, a point theSun had touched on. But the paper also called into question what the Mentri Besar has been doing. This is unlike the shameless “People’s Paper” that continues to serve faithfully as a mouthpiece of the Mentri Besar even though the whole galaxy has come to witness how the latter has made a mockery of himself by saying that Selangor is a developed state simply because he said so.

And so The Star, as clones of the Selangor Mentri Besar, pushes on....