Why do I say that The Star is actually a creature cradled in DAP’s bosom? Let’s see whose behaviour it follows.
When MCA is caught in a wrongdoing, it owns up. MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek famously admitted, “Yes, I am the man”.
The Star‘s behaviour is patently DAP-like. Fudgy-dodgy, as seen in its latest feigning ignorance. Just like the DAP when its secretary-general was confronted with ‘that colourful’ allegation.
The article in Star Online headlined ‘Buying your first home is a big step and can be exciting‘ by Dawn Jeremiah is now a blank page. The paper retracted it yesterday.
Earlier blogger uppercaise found that 17 out of 24 paragraphs in the said Star article was lifted word for word from a foreign publication.
Leaving a comment in ‘Malaysian Media Matters’, former Star editor A. Asohan observed, “Turns out she’s a serial plagiarizer” and cited another article that Dawn stole — identical thoughts expressed in the very same words.
The Star has axed her column but is yet to issue any statement or apology to its readers. The paper masih buat tak tahu and the general public would have not been any the wiser if not for the MMM blog leaking the story.
Did The Star delete reader’s comment in Facebook?
In fact, worse than “make dunno”, the paper is further accused of deleting an entry on the scandal submitted to its Facebook.
(In parallel, an ex-reporter Boo Su-Lyn had claimed that the Malaysian national evangelical church similarly deleted her comment from their Facebook when she brought up the City Harvest Church scandal).
An uppercaise reader by the name of ‘Tiffa’ revealed this morning:
“Yes, I posted this on The Star Online facebook and asked them to explain, guess what my comments was deleted within 2 seconds. So i guess they just want to sweep this under carpet. Maybe I should paste this on NST Online FB page instead? lol.”
More examples of Dawn Jeremiah’s plagiarism collated by uppercaise, here. With the overwhelming evidence, there is no way The Star can wriggle out of this one.
Uppercaise in his parting shot at the paper suggested that “taking an audit would not be amiss”.
Gunting dalam Lipatan
Some postings ago, I had proposed that MCA should audit The Star for its blatant bias favouring Pakatan’s evangelistas to the neglect of MCA’s own bigwigs.
Its orientation to Christian politicians comes on top of the paper nonchalantly ‘burying’ Wanita MCA and Beliawanis.
In fact, The Star is plainly contemptuous of Beliawanis.
It provided scant coverage of the sexual harassment of Beliawanis chief Tee Hooi Ling, near zero mention of Beliawanis treasurer Jessica Lai who was once touted as potential challenger to Hannah Yeoh as well as made no defence of Selangor chief Jessie Ooi who was mercilessly hounded by DAPsters.
And even when Beliawanis took issue with a PKR Adun for her mockery of the “umbrella girls” (models invited to prettify the MCA Youth general assembly), The Star did not see fit to air their side of the story whereas there is copious coverage of the much fawned upon Adun.
Lower ranking Umno-ites tak ‘yah cakap lah. Almost invisible in the paper, they are presumably in the kampung tanam jagung and of no interest to the Star demographic of Subang Jaya and Damansara Utama churchgoers.
Before the general election rolls around, MCA might want to ask its key media relations people like Heng Seai Kie and Loh Seng Kok (MCA publicity bureau chief and her deputy) how they rate The Star-Rocket (split personality) reporting.
And do ask MCA Wanita president Yu Chok Tow – whom nobody reading The Star would be able to name because she appears in the paper as often as Halley’s Comet passes the Earth – and also Penang MCA Wanita chief Tan Cheng Liang – who’s a favourite target of DAP cybertroopers – what they and other Wanita MCA office bearers think of The Star.
A Google search on the Wanita MCA chief in The Star over the past year yielded 6 results (i.e. six articles) compared to 85 results for Hannah Yeoh.
DAP’s “perfect abode”
Let’s have a peep at the columnist who wrote one article ironically titled ‘Finding your perfect abode,’ which I think aptly describes the coddling that DAP evangelist politicians find in The Star.
The Star columnist who plagiarized is Dawn Jeremiah – middle name Marie. She attended a CONVENT SCHOOL in Penang … that hub of Tokong worship, birthplace of The Star, hometown of its top editors.
(A past posting of mine might interest you, Apakala Pulau Pinang diKristiankan)
Dawn Jeremiah’s careers have been in public relations (executive), broadcasting and marketing (“personality”). And The Star gave such a lightweight individual a column, hmmm.
Oh well, it is only in keeping with how the same paper had devoted reams of newsprint to a former “event planner”, now DAP state assemblyman Hannah Yeoh.
Hundreds — yes, you read me right, hundreds! — of Star articles and thousands of column inches on Hannah Yeoh in the short span of the last couple of years.
A few days ago, Star columnist Dr Mohamad Tajuddin Rasdi (who stopped writing for the paper recently) joined the DAP.
The paper must be a fertile breeding ground for DAP sympathizers.
Unless the MCA media owners put their foot down, I’m betting that The Star would churn out buttery puff pieces on DAP’s newly acquired wunderkind, the Christian Ong Kian Ming and the evangelist Yeo Bee Yin like how it promoted the Hannah Yeoh personality cult.
The Anglophile, Christianized ethos propagated by The Star is nothing short of an act of harakiri on the MCA.
Hannah printed bible verse on angpow
Imagine that The Star actually reported, and with a straight face, that Hannah Yeoh produced personalised ang pow packets (using taxpayer’s money) which featured a Bible verse from the Book of Proverbs on the cover, and her photo and contact details at the back.
Didn’t anyone in The Star notice the incongruity of a Chinese New Year item – the ang pow – featuring a bible verse which has nothing to do with Chinese? This perversion of imposing a biblical verse on a traditional Chinese festival, plus the “Look at me, look at me!” Hannah Yeoh ‘fashion’ cover on the ang pow in themselves merit a story.
But alas, The Star has absolutely no news sense.
Either that or its acts of commission and omission are deliberate, like when the other papers such as NST and Malay Mail reported that Hannah Yeoh was hauled to the police station to be questioned for allegedly slandering an MCA Deputy Minister but The Star blacked out this news item.
MCA’s ownership of The Star is inflicting a bipolar disorder on the paper that yearns to be The Rocket but is forced to toe the line whenever the party bosses remember to crack the whip. Having to carry pro-BN reports – which the Star is coerced to write through gritted teeth amidst its more favoured evangelista content – is sheer misery to the paper.
With 85 percent of the Chinese electorate deemed pro-opposition, imagine the self-conflict roiling in the underbelly of The Star. Its reporters may be paid staff but they are voters with personal allegiances too.
Helen Ang 
If the Star is daps bitch…what does that make you? Dumno’s waste of space?
Sshsn is Tokong’s gimp LOL
By that logic, are you Helens right hand bitch or left hand? See Joe, you must think, if you can occasionally.
Ssshh…sshsn, you are shitter than before.
Ok Hussin. Only if you insist.
MCA should just sell DAP the plagiarizing Star
indeed, yes.
rambut sama hitam, hati lain-lain.
talibarut jepun dulu nama kempetai.
talibarut DAP dalam the star nama apa ya?
This is off-topic, but too juicy to pass on:
@limkitsiang tweets that if PR gets Putrajaya in GE13, they will do everything possible to stay in power forever.
His subsequent tweets are flip-flopping on the previous statement. Trying to deflect and divert to Tun M pulak. LOL! #Pakatoons #haprak
Taking the piss out of Pakatoons @warismalaya
mak ai, LKS ni sgt gelojoh!
kalau tak dapat putrajaya dia dan nuar masuk wad gila di TR
[…]
Helen’s reply: I’ve also seen first hand how media ‘personalities’ berlagak and tunjuk besar but are not really as brave as their bluster. The public are just too easily deceived by appearances and wishful rhetoric (which is why DAPsters annoy me much more than BN supporters). What to do …
[…]
Helen: Must wish longevity lah, even for oppo leaders.
“(which is why DAPsters annoy me much more than BN supporters). What to do …” – Helen Ang
helen,
ini adalah dedikasi IDA untuk anda. nikmatilah pelan-pelan…
Bukan Rasis
: Helen Ang
sukarnya mencari restoran Melayu
di Ong Yi How dan sekitar Raja Uda
seperti sukarnya menemui manusia
yang berkata, “Aku Cina” (tapi bukan rasis)
begitu juga untuk menemui manusia
yang mengajak bangsanya mencontohi
dua ‘Tun’ terdahulu, berterima kasih
di atas lapang dada tuan tanah ini
syukurlah masih ada,
mereka yang mengingat sejarah
dan tahu diri serta patuh janji
biarlah kaduk naik junjung
biarlah ekor anjing berubah
– menjadi kepalanya…biarkan
kerana mereka nabi palsu,
tak malu mengaku: “holier than you!”
IDA
07-09-2012
*dua ‘Tun’ terdahulu adalah Tun Tan Cheng Lock & Tun V.T Sambanthan
:)
I have recently met and asked so many so-called fengshui masters or fortune tellers. All of them told me that the BN will win the PRU13 and Datuk Seri Najib will still be the Prime Minister. Anwar Ibrahim, they said, is destined not to be Malaysia’s Prime Minister till the day he died. So what the fuss, Pakatan? The stars are all against you.
Saudari Helen
That the Star is doing all these in the name increasing readership and advertising revenues is plain to see. What we do not understand is what is the MCA thinking in allowing this to go on and on, as if the Star is not answerable to MCA?
This looks like a ‘pelik tapi benar’ phenomenon. Malaysia boleh??
The only plausible explanation is that the MCA is giving itself an option whatever the results of GE13 would turn out to be: more than their fair share of representation in the Government (like it had always been) should BN win and/or having a certain share of the bounty by virtue that their organ had been dry-leased to the DAP should the Pakatoons gain Putrajaya.
The gunting dalam lipatan is not the Star per se, but the MCA scissors in UMNO’s samping. That is why I take it with a pinch of salt all those debates between Soi Lek – Kim Guan Eng and Chua Junior’s Talam dare on Khalid Gaga.
I don’t know about the context, but I like the Saudari Helen thingy. Such sopan santun from a fellow Malaysian. What more do you need from a cultured nation.
The Star was started by 20 disgruntled young Turks from the NST. They had great ideals but now the Star had cheapened itself so much and stooped so low that I was quite happy not to have ever worked for the paper. The subbing, nowadays, also sucks.
I think the clearest proof that the Star is actually the Rocket-wanna be is their coverage of the Talam issue. While the NST publishes every press statements of Chua Jr and even pictures of his visits to the sites and gives prominent coverage in terms of size and page position, MCA merely shuffles the news item to some inner pages hidden behind platitudes to their DAP demi-gods and righteous superstars. The coverage looks like done by some junior reporter or bored and jaded veteren winding down on his/her retirement.
One can understand that the Star needs to be mindful of the business aspects and not to offend the commercially influential Christian Chinese block who form sizeable portion of their readership. But that does not mean they have to bow down to the Christian Talebans of DAP and give them the superstar treatment while the MCA leaders are sidelined.
I find the metro pages (both the Klang valley and North versions) to be even worse, which probably because it has lesser editorial control compared to the main version.
Usually the rocket goes to the stars, but in this case, the Star has gone to the Rocket…..LOL.
my dear Helen, Im only wondering, since you’re now no longer work in Malaysiakini, which newspaper are you working right now?
Im a fan of your writing. The only page I read in The Star is the column written by Jocelyn Tan (maybe she is Christian, but at least her writing are quit fair between BN & PR).
I suggest that both of you join New Straits Times and perhaps NST can bet The ‘rocket’ Star in the future?
I have never worked for Malaysiakini.
They ran my column for roughly about 6 years just like The Star runs Azmi Sharom’s column and he doesn’t work for the paper but is a UM lecturer, or Marina Mahathir’s column, or many of the others who are non-journos.
Like you, Joceline is the only writing that I consistently read in The Star as she’s the only political writer there with any nous. However it seems she’s quite isolated as she’s the only one writing critically and does not get any back-up from her colleagues.
Responding to Joceline’s most recent article on the land deals, Kim Guan Eng retorted that “the allegations were a case of “indulging in pure fabrication, mindless concoctions and sheer hallucination”.
But none of her colleagues nor her paper have stepped forward to defend her against Kim’s attack, just like when the Wanita MCA and Beliawanis are bashed up by the opposition, The Star doesn’t lift a finger to address the situation by tempering the hysterical public opinion amongst the opposition crowd.
Looking at the kind of language that the Dear Leader employs give a good indication on his personality and leadership style – full of hate, angst and extreme hubris.
To quote Michelle Obama: “Leadership doesn’t change you; it reveals who you are.”
tee hee hee
I do not believe they will sell The Star. why should they ? The Star is a money making machine for them. with the way things are, they have even more reason to cling on to The Star. after they are decimated in the GE, what bargaining power do you think they still have ? with the electorates/constituents gone, they have only money. MONEY is their only bargaining power, the only thing left for them in their relation to other BN component parties.
this is also off topic, but,
http://khairulryezal.blogspot.com/2012/09/dap-memang-bagus-bela-amoi-pijak-gambar.html
saya cuma nak kata, bila orang-orang Melayu akan sedar ? dah dipergunakan, tapi masih boleh duduk diam.
Good morning Helen. sorry for interrupting. I think that if you were to write something regarding the predicament of the mooning kid and the way the opposition protect the Chinese girl when she was at the police station, you can trigger a more heated debate of the ever widening Chinese-Malay and the rest of Malaysia divide. Just a suggestion.
The predicament of the mooning kid? What predicament? He’s an adult – at an institution of higher learning, at that. In the circumstances, his father’s apology to Najib bears no relevence.
And the Chinese girl: she said she apologised to the malaysian public and stressed that there was no need for her to apologise to Najib since Najib is part of the Malaysian public. This is also irrelevent since there’s no such thing as Malaysian public. What we have are Malaysian publics with diverse positions on the issue at hand.
Closer to reality is to view this shameful episode from the perspective of the State since a crime under the penal code is a crime against the State; not against Najib nor against the Malaysian publics.
Why don’t we, as a nation governed by laws, just allow the law to take its course with or without the intervention of political parties?
But under what law is it criminal to step on a photo?
You don’t commit a crime if you step on whosoever’s photo within the confines of your own private space. But if a nation does not view it as a crime an act that is done in public with the intention to shame someone else that has the potential of arousing public anger and disturbing the peace of the nation, that nation is an ass. It is worse than a nation that has an ass for a law.
Kim Guan Eng is a big liability to the nation. In fact, he is not fit to be leader of anything. Maybe, he is fit to supervise a pig farm. His face tells everything. I thank Allah I don’t have a weird face like his.
I have stopped buying the said paper.
In either case it’s full of adverbs and what not article only
…Full of adverts
What lah are youi talkign about. Why get so upset just because DAP’s pretty Christian girls get more publicity than MCA’s old farts and hadbeens. This all about selling newspapers, but things will change soon.
Wait lah until the election proper campaign starts, and see how the BN propaganda mouthpieces aka NST, Star, Berita Hairan, Hudusan, etc. go into full gear and gempar Pakatan. Mark my words.
Beliawanis are young and manis. Tee Hooi Ling (click photo here) and Jessie Ooi, click.
They look much better than DAP’s preacher women.
You are right Helen. In fact MCA should sell it at nominal fee of
RM 1 to DAP. We all can see it but unfortunately the husband of hippo lippo does not want to see it.
Good one Zack.