“After yesterday’s press conference on PM Abdullah’s link with the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) project, I told members that either there would be big coverage or a complete blackout in the next day’s newspaper.

By evening after surfing the website of several Chinese dailies and found nothing reported about my “expose”, I knew the newspapers would be extra cautious with this piece of news as it involved the Prime Minister.

Actually, stories about Abdullah’s role in the PORR project could be found in certain website. However, no one has brought the matter to the mainstream media yet.

This morning, I found that almost all the Chinese presses have black-out the news.
Kwong Wah, Sin Chew, China Press and Oriental Daily did not carry the story.
Normally, the Chinese newspapers (usually in the local sections) would provide enough space for Opposition news but that was no ordinary news.

I was surprised that the more conservative Nanyang Siang Pau carried the news on their national page. Another write-up was also found in the local section. Guang Ming Daily carried the news in the same page as the reports on the Penang State Legislative Assembly.

However, both Nanyang and Guang Ming Daily treated the news with the “utmost care”, reporting it in a “backdoor” manner. I have said clearly the PM Datuk Seri Abdullah was named as a director of Yayasan Bumiputra Pulau Pinang, who owns 34% of the PMW share via two wholly-owned companies, Kumpulan Pinang and Kumpulan Perhubungan.

The news report said a person bearing the same name as the PM was named as a director. In a cheeky manner, the report said the I.C. Number and the address at Putrajaya also matched that of the PM.

Only theSun carried a 3-paragraph brief on Page 2 under the heading, “DAP questions PM’s credibility.”

Do you expect the NST, Star, Utusan and Berita Harian to carry this news?

PM Abdullah told the people that he wanted to hear the truth. But local media owner have their annual licence to take care of. But it is this fear that would not help PM Abdullah in his fight against corruption and to promote good governance, integrity and ethics in his Administration. Without a free media, no chance can happen.

I can assure you that I will continue to seek for an answer.