Portal Releases Transcript After Being Accused Of Misquoting Sanusi

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A news portal has released purported chat logs between one of its reporters and the Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor.
This came after Sanusi accused Free Malaysia Today of misquoting him in a report titled ‘Amend constitution to show Kedah owns Penang, says Sanusi’ published on Wednesday last week.
The chat logs were published as a series of screenshots taken from a text messaging platform.
It is purported to be the full transcript of the messages with Sanusi on the matter. Malaysiakini is unable to verify this claim.
At the beginning of the chat on May 31, Sanusi appeared to issue a statement in response to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had said all Malay rulers, including the Kedah sultan, consented to the current constitutional agreement.
Sanusi purportedly claimed his view that Penang belongs to Kedah is backed by ‘strong, authoritative, absolute, and relevant’ academic studies and historical documents, and questioned then why the constitution cannot be changed.
“Since the constitution’s contents have been amended over the years in Parliament in accordance with its process and procedures, based on requirements of the time, why should a strong discovery be cast aside just because of what the constitution says?
“The history distorted by vested interests needs to be corrected by a generation that has the awareness to act for the sake of truth and to reject falsehoods,” Sanusi reportedly said.
Follow-up question
According to the chat log, Sanusi was later asked a follow-up question whether the constitutional amendment he meant is the definition of states in the Malaysian federations.
He was also referred to a news report about Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh’s statement.
Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal SinghSpecifically, the reporter highlighted Ramkarpal’s statement that Penang’s position as a state is already recognised under Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution, while Article 71(1) read together with the Eighth Schedule guarantees each state can have its own state government and constitution.
To this, Sanusi apparently replied that any part of the constitution can be amended.
“Anything in the constitution can be amended. If there is anything that cannot be amended, it is clearly stated. Some chapters can be amended (only) with the consent of the Conference of Rulers.
“Ramkarpal or anyone can say anything… Free to give their views, and rely on anything (any evidence), as long as it is within the law. So am I,” he reportedly said.
FMT would later publish a report that night, which quoted Sanusi advocating for the constitution to be amended to support his claim that Penang belongs to Kedah. The same report was subsequently picked up by other media including Malaysiakini.
Misreporting claim
Meanwhile, according to the chat log, the FMT reporter provided links to both English and Malay language versions of its report shortly after it was published and asked whether the reports are “okay”.
No reply from Sanusi was shown until last night, after a press conference in Alor Setar following questioning by the police.
According to New Straits Times yesterday, Sanusi claimed his statement was misreported and he never demanded for the Federal Constitution to be amended to reclaim Penang.
Instead, he said he was merely asking for the annual payments to Kedah for Penang to be reviewed to reflect its current market value.
“They accused me of going against the Federal Constitution. Since when asking for current market value is something against the constitution?
“They accused me of calling for an amendment (of the Constitution). I did not say that. I never said such a thing anywhere.
“I said there are only two things in this world that you can't amend: the Quran and hadith (Prophet Muhammad's sayings). I never asked for the Constitution to be amended,” he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, the FMT reporter queried Sanusi about the alleged misreporting, to which Sanusi reprimanded the reporter.
“You don’t understand but I am the one who suffers. I have never written about asking for a constitutional amendment; what I wrote is that the only thing in the world that can’t be amended are the Quran and the hadith.
“The ‘constitutional amendment’ headline is controversial, (strays) too far, out of context, and becomes a point of contention for (Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng) in Parliament,” he said, according to the chat log.
He also said he will not speak to the reporter or FMT privately again.
“From now on, I learned that no more private messages with you (or) FMT. Dangerous,” he said.
Earlier today, Lim had cast doubt on Sanusi’s denial, saying Sanusi should have corrected FMT immediately or lodged a police report if it was wrong, rather to wait for a week to act. - Mkini

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