KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 23 (Sin Chew Daily) – The Editors' Association (Chinese Medium) Malaysia feels that DAP political education director Liew Chin Tong's allegation that distortion of Jawi calligraphy issue by local Chinese newspapers as "Islamization of Chinese" is wholly an irresponsible act of wrongly incriminating the Chinese newspapers.

The association urges Liew not to irresponsibly put all the blame on Chinese newspapers just because of his own incapability, attempt to please his political allies, and refusal to assume responsibility for the local Chinese community, lest the incident evolve into a political storm for his party.

In a statement released today, the association pointed out that when the education ministry decided to include Jawi in the SJKC curriculum, the original module was "Jawi calligraphy" with six pages in the textbook. However, following extensive coverage of this matter on Chinese newspapers and the ensuing public outcry, including strong backlash from local Chinese educational bodies and organizations, the ministry subsequently modified the module to "introduction of Jawi script" with the number of pages cut down to three.

The statement said Chinese newspapers have always acted in the overall interest of the Malaysian Chinese community where this is concerned.

"Chinese newspapers have truthfully reflected the position and views of local Chinese educational bodies and organizations, and have never attempted to fan public sentiment or distort the facts. They have never harbored any hidden agenda on this particular matter."

As a matter of fact, the association said even during BN's time Chinese newspapers would truthfully report any event deemed unfavorable to the development of Chinese language education or the local Chinese community, and very often DAP, then an opposition party, would happily exploit such issues to blast the BN government, especially MCA and Gerakan Rakyat.

"Liew should not change his stand just because his party now became a ruling party, constantly attacking Chinese newspapers which have always provided editorial space for politicians to hit out at their opponents.

"The Editors' Association (Chinese Medium) Malaysia deeply regrets such a mean behavior of Mr Liew."

The association felt that this constituted a blatant act of press freedom suppression.

It asserted that explanations and statements on Seni Khat by Pakatan Harapan ministers were all fairly handled and published by the Chinese newspapers.