KUALA LUMPUR: When the former Prime Minister of Australia Paul Keating visited businessman-politician Vell Paari’s multi-utility vehicles manufacturing plant in Perth, the latter was momentarily stunned.
Vell Paari, the son of MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, had expected a tough-talking Keating whom he had seen over television, spewing fiery speeches during debates in Parliament.
Instead, there stood in front of him a soothing, soft Keating. Baffled, he asked the soft Keating whether the hard Keating had gone AWOL.
Keating responded: “Politics is like going into a dog’s den. If you are not ready to behave like a mad dog, get ready to be mauled.”
That sums up Vell Paari’s reasoning for his Tamil Nesan newspaper going to "war" with its rival daily Makkal Osai in what has over the past few weeks seen both parties piling scorn and accusations on one another.
Makkal Osai’s defence, according to its editor M. Rajenthiram: “They started it. They defamed and threatened us and even when we used decent ways such as seeking legal redress to end this, they never relented.”
It’s yet another chapter in the long-running battle between Samy Vellu, whose family owns Tamil Nesan, and his arch rival Datuk S. Subramaniam, who is linked to Makkal Osai.
This time, however, everything imaginable from alleged sex romps, lurid details of personal lives, unsavoury language and ruthless name-calling are seeing print. It appears that there are no laws on defamation.
What used to be covert has suddenly become overt. What used to be unimaginable to Malaysian culture and media is taking centrestage in both newspapers.
Readers, academicians and social activists call the war of words between the two politically-aligned dailies “repulsive, repugnant and intolerable in any form”.
Tamil language expert Dr M. Balachandran summed up the spat in a nutshell: “What is appearing on their pages is insulting to the readers and ludicrous. The papers are firmly in gutter territory and we are sick of these yarns.”
Balachandran noted that during the recent MIC annual general assembly, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had taken a swipe at the Tamil dailies which he said were being used to further the political mileage of certain leaders. Najib had said that by doing so, the dailies failed to realise they were destroying their own community by dividing it.
The newspapers, Najib said, should help change the mindset of the Indian community and unite them “but this is not happening”.
Indeed, it isn’t because the editors of Tamil Nesan and Makkal Osai are on the warpath.
Spearheading the Tamil Nesan onslaught is A. Veerasamy, better known as Tamil Mani, while in the other corner is Makkal Osai editor, Rajenthiram. Ironically, Tamil Mani, once a trenchant critic of Samy Vellu, is known as the journalist to have written more articles for various newspapers and magazines degrading, insulting and slandering Samy Vellu and his family on every aspect of their lives.
On April 1, he joined Tamil Nesan and became their hitman. No surprise then, that he has been more venomous in his articles than Rajenthiram in the current spat. It was he who started the row by taking potshots at Subramaniam. He went on a spree, writing 19 articles over three weeks, and dissected every aspect of the lives of Subramaniam and his friends with the wild excitement of a schoolboy given a scalpel and let loose on a dead mouse in Year Six science.
He further pilloried the editors, general manager, reporters and a subeditor of Makkal Osai. He went to the extent of naming the sub-editor and threatened to make public sexually explicit photographs of him.
These were all accompanied by language unseen in the 96-year-old Tamil Nesan, the oldest Tamil paper in the country.
Makkal Osai retorted by re-producing four anti-Samy Vellu articles written by Tamil Mani before he joined Tamil Nesan. These contained language that never saw print in the paper.
Rajenthiram explained the reason for re-producing the articles: “He was an incorrigible critic of Samy Vellu and his family then and we wanted to inform our readers that this is the same man who once championed the lead to get rid of Samy Vellu.
“And now, he is threatening us (Makkal Osai) not to write anything about the MIC or its president or face his wrath.”
He said the four articles related to Samy Vellu’s leadership, shortcomings in the MIC Youth and alleged wrongdoings in AIMST University and the party’s education arm, MIED.
Rajenthiram said his last say on the running battle with Tamil Mani was yesterday when he wrote that his paper would not be cowed by any threats from Tamil Nesan and would continue to expose wrongdoings that affected the Indian community.
Tamil Mani had a day earlier warned Makkal Osai that if they breached any of the eight conditions that he issued in his column, he would unleash his rage and let rip against his targets in a personal manner.
He had in the Friday edition gone to the extent of including a disclaimer at the end of his article, saying Tamil Nesan would not be responsible if anyone hanged themselves in shame over the issues exposed.
While Makkal Osai says it would resort to legal action to end the war, Tamil Mani, when contacted yesterday, said he would respond when he returns from out of town.
On the language used, both Vell Paari, the managing director of Tamil Nesan, and Rajenthiram said they regretted it. However, Vell Paari added: “Everbody is complaining now. Where were these people when they (Makkal Osai) used such language and made nasty remarks about the MIC and my family all these years.
“We have been keeping quiet all this while, but we decided that if this is the route they are taking, we will do the same.
“Who let the dogs out?. . .They did.”
Vell Paari, the son of MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, had expected a tough-talking Keating whom he had seen over television, spewing fiery speeches during debates in Parliament.
Instead, there stood in front of him a soothing, soft Keating. Baffled, he asked the soft Keating whether the hard Keating had gone AWOL.
Keating responded: “Politics is like going into a dog’s den. If you are not ready to behave like a mad dog, get ready to be mauled.”
That sums up Vell Paari’s reasoning for his Tamil Nesan newspaper going to "war" with its rival daily Makkal Osai in what has over the past few weeks seen both parties piling scorn and accusations on one another.
Makkal Osai’s defence, according to its editor M. Rajenthiram: “They started it. They defamed and threatened us and even when we used decent ways such as seeking legal redress to end this, they never relented.”
It’s yet another chapter in the long-running battle between Samy Vellu, whose family owns Tamil Nesan, and his arch rival Datuk S. Subramaniam, who is linked to Makkal Osai.
This time, however, everything imaginable from alleged sex romps, lurid details of personal lives, unsavoury language and ruthless name-calling are seeing print. It appears that there are no laws on defamation.
What used to be covert has suddenly become overt. What used to be unimaginable to Malaysian culture and media is taking centrestage in both newspapers.
Readers, academicians and social activists call the war of words between the two politically-aligned dailies “repulsive, repugnant and intolerable in any form”.
Tamil language expert Dr M. Balachandran summed up the spat in a nutshell: “What is appearing on their pages is insulting to the readers and ludicrous. The papers are firmly in gutter territory and we are sick of these yarns.”
Balachandran noted that during the recent MIC annual general assembly, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had taken a swipe at the Tamil dailies which he said were being used to further the political mileage of certain leaders. Najib had said that by doing so, the dailies failed to realise they were destroying their own community by dividing it.
The newspapers, Najib said, should help change the mindset of the Indian community and unite them “but this is not happening”.
Indeed, it isn’t because the editors of Tamil Nesan and Makkal Osai are on the warpath.
Spearheading the Tamil Nesan onslaught is A. Veerasamy, better known as Tamil Mani, while in the other corner is Makkal Osai editor, Rajenthiram. Ironically, Tamil Mani, once a trenchant critic of Samy Vellu, is known as the journalist to have written more articles for various newspapers and magazines degrading, insulting and slandering Samy Vellu and his family on every aspect of their lives.
On April 1, he joined Tamil Nesan and became their hitman. No surprise then, that he has been more venomous in his articles than Rajenthiram in the current spat. It was he who started the row by taking potshots at Subramaniam. He went on a spree, writing 19 articles over three weeks, and dissected every aspect of the lives of Subramaniam and his friends with the wild excitement of a schoolboy given a scalpel and let loose on a dead mouse in Year Six science.
He further pilloried the editors, general manager, reporters and a subeditor of Makkal Osai. He went to the extent of naming the sub-editor and threatened to make public sexually explicit photographs of him.
These were all accompanied by language unseen in the 96-year-old Tamil Nesan, the oldest Tamil paper in the country.
Makkal Osai retorted by re-producing four anti-Samy Vellu articles written by Tamil Mani before he joined Tamil Nesan. These contained language that never saw print in the paper.
Rajenthiram explained the reason for re-producing the articles: “He was an incorrigible critic of Samy Vellu and his family then and we wanted to inform our readers that this is the same man who once championed the lead to get rid of Samy Vellu.
“And now, he is threatening us (Makkal Osai) not to write anything about the MIC or its president or face his wrath.”
He said the four articles related to Samy Vellu’s leadership, shortcomings in the MIC Youth and alleged wrongdoings in AIMST University and the party’s education arm, MIED.
Rajenthiram said his last say on the running battle with Tamil Mani was yesterday when he wrote that his paper would not be cowed by any threats from Tamil Nesan and would continue to expose wrongdoings that affected the Indian community.
Tamil Mani had a day earlier warned Makkal Osai that if they breached any of the eight conditions that he issued in his column, he would unleash his rage and let rip against his targets in a personal manner.
He had in the Friday edition gone to the extent of including a disclaimer at the end of his article, saying Tamil Nesan would not be responsible if anyone hanged themselves in shame over the issues exposed.
While Makkal Osai says it would resort to legal action to end the war, Tamil Mani, when contacted yesterday, said he would respond when he returns from out of town.
On the language used, both Vell Paari, the managing director of Tamil Nesan, and Rajenthiram said they regretted it. However, Vell Paari added: “Everbody is complaining now. Where were these people when they (Makkal Osai) used such language and made nasty remarks about the MIC and my family all these years.
“We have been keeping quiet all this while, but we decided that if this is the route they are taking, we will do the same.
“Who let the dogs out?. . .They did.”
No comments:
Post a Comment