Harakah says sorry for cartoon

KUALA LUMPUR: Harakah, the official organ of PAS, has apologised for a caricature of Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the wake of calls for stern action against the paper. 

In a two-paragraph statement, the paper said it was withdrawing the caricature, drawn by cartoonist Zunar, which was published in its latest issue. 

“If it is true there are parties insulted by the publication of the cartoon, Harakah offers its apology as it was not intentional,” said the statement, signed by chief editor Zulkifli Sulong. 

It did not state to whom the apology was directed to.  

Many Barisan Nasional leaders want the Home Ministry to revoke the publishing permit of the paper, saying the opposition party had gone overboard in its criticism of Dr Mahathir for the Government’s policy on the private community religious schools (SAR). 

The Government had ruled that these schools would be absorbed into national-type schools to avoid any occurrence of teachings that were against Islamic principles. 

Harakah carried a two-frame cartoon which the government’s Backbenchers Club reportedly said had connected Dr Mahathir to a pig. 

The first frame showed a caricature of the animal, with the headline Masalah SARS (SARS problem) and the caption Gara-gara Khinzir (Consequences of the pig). The second frame carried the headline Masalah SAR, with a caricature of a man with a snout-like nose, with the caption Masalah SAR and the caption Gara-gara Mahazir! (Consequences of Mahazir!). 

MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said PAS had “stooped so low to politically discredit a respected leader.” 

Ong said the published caricature carried “evil intention” by associating the pig as the cause of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome when scientists had yet to determine the cause of SARS. 

MCA Youth secretary-general Liow Tiong Lai said the caricature was a distortion of how the SARS virus was spread and an insult to the intelligence of all Malaysians. 

“PAS is trying to confuse the situation by implying that pigs are the cause of SARS,” he said.  

Gerakan deputy president Datuk Seri Kerk Choo Ting described the drawing as very mischievous. 

“As a party which claims to be religious, their thoughts should be clean. They should stop all these smearing campaign,” he said.