Abdullah responded, “That’s why I said I don’t think there’s any control anymore."
When he was the PM, he gave the media more space, noting that he appointed Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan as the editor-in-chief of New Straits Times. With Kalimullah at the helm, the newspaper was critical of Umno and at times, of Abdullah’s leadership itself.
“Some of my Supreme Council members were unhappy with him and wanted me to remove him. But during his time, the newspapers within the group became profitable and sales increased. They had credibility,” said Abdullah, noting that sales at the NST had since dropped significantly.
It was the same situation at TV3, where the viewership of the primetime news programme grew under the stewardship of Datuk Kamarulzaman Zainal, Abdullah’s former press secretary.
Still, he noted that many in Umno were not pleased with the era of openness and blamed BN’s poor results in 2008 on Abdullah’s decision to allow more discourse on issues.
“The openness did not happen by chance. I wanted it that way. Unfortunately, my detractors – particularly those seeking to keep the old ways and who resisted the change – interpreted it as a sign of weakness,” he said in the book titled, "Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia". . .
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WNEN it was not OUT OF CONTROL ; ...
ReplyDeleteAbdullah responded, “That’s why I said I don’t think there’s any control anymore."
When he was the PM, he gave the media more space, noting that he appointed Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan as the editor-in-chief of New Straits Times. With Kalimullah at the helm, the newspaper was critical of Umno and at times, of Abdullah’s leadership itself.
“Some of my Supreme Council members were unhappy with him and wanted me to remove him. But during his time, the newspapers within the group became profitable and sales increased. They had credibility,” said Abdullah, noting that sales at the NST had since dropped significantly.
It was the same situation at TV3, where the viewership of the primetime news programme grew under the stewardship of Datuk Kamarulzaman Zainal, Abdullah’s former press secretary.
Still, he noted that many in Umno were not pleased with the era of openness and blamed BN’s poor results in 2008 on Abdullah’s decision to allow more discourse on issues.
“The openness did not happen by chance. I wanted it that way. Unfortunately, my detractors – particularly those seeking to keep the old ways and who resisted the change – interpreted it as a sign of weakness,” he said in the book titled, "Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia".
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Egypt says foreign mediation fails, blames Islamists
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BoE says UK rates held until unemployment falls