SUARAM & Malaysia Kini : Receiving Foreign Fund Doesn’t Meant We are Less Patriotic

Accredited to Martin Jalleh (http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2012/09/13/siege-on-suaram/)

Due to receiving foreign funds, SUARAM and Malaysiakini are being placed on the hot seat for being unpatriotic towards the country.

Despite having themselves under the government’s magnifying glass recently, SUARAM and Malaysiakini had been very bold when it comes to responding to the so called allegation of being the “political pawn” of their source of funds ever since their existence.

As for SUARAM, apart from being accused spreading western idealistic, registering under Registrar of Companies instead of Registrar of Society didn’t help either. 

Nevertheless, according to the Bersih Movement spokesperson, Dr. Wong Chin Huat, the reason for SUARAM’s move to register as a company is because in Malaysia to register legally as a society or political party in Malaysia under the ROS is rather hard.

According to Prof. Mustafa K. Anuar, Malaysiakini was never a foreign influence mouth piece regardless the fact that they have been receiving funds from foreign investors one of them being indirectly linked to George Soros.

As was reported by The Sun, Premesh Chandran, the chief executive officer of Malaysiakini, made a clear statement that, yes, they have been receiving foreign funding. Nevertheless, it had never affected their publishing independence.