Utusan's wide coverage of BN manifesto suffocates report on DAP's

Without any doubt, the Barisan Nasional's manifesto was the theme occupying half of the front page in yesterday's Utusan. It was reported in both point form and an article. Six more news articles on the responses of various ministers and members of the public were placed on page 9. Utusan also had a three-page supplement attached with the economy, city and sports section to further promote the manifesto.

Two more feel good news were reported in the economy section. The first was the shape of MAS, which announced its highest net profit in 60 years of operations. The second was the outgoing Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop's assertion that Malaysia would achieve GDP growth of 6.8 per cent. He is also the candidate for the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary seat.

The DAP also announced its plan to offset the burden on the poor by giving RM6,000 a year to families earning less than that amount in a year. The news was literally cornered by BN's counter offensive in the same page. Candidate for Padang Kota state seat, Teng Chang Yeow responded in Cadangan DAP tak rasional while the chairperson of the government's National Implementation Task Force, Zainal Aznam Yusoff, responded in Tidak Munasabah.

The BN also enjoyed an almost-full-page spread of photographs and an advertisement placed next to each other in pages 4 and 5. At the bottom right corner of the page, however, was the picture of independent candidate Maimun Yusof, who tried for the fourth time to stand for election in Kuala Terengganu. This time, the 89-year-old grandmother succeeded.