Jun 13: UMNO’s right-wing daily Utusan Malaysia is embroiled in yet another misreporting, this time with a claim that several brands of cars have now become cheaper for Malaysian buyers.
The claim was immediately denied by European carmakers Volkswagen and Peugeot after the paper said their prices were slashed this year.
Utusan claimed that Volkswagen’s Golf model went down from RM169,888 to RM157,888, while Peugeot’s 308 model became cheaper by 11 percent, from RM115,663 to RM102,888.
But their representatives in Malaysia said those had always been the prices.
News portal The Malaysian Insider reported that Honda also denied Utusan’s report that the price of its Jazz Hybrid model was slashed by 2.5 percent, from RM92,187 to RM89,900, saying it had always been sold at that price. The portal also leaked an internal memorandum by national carmaker Proton disputing the frontpage report by Utusan.
The latest controversy involving the daily prompted DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng to lash out at it for lying.
"Utusan lied when it said the federal government has fulfilled its election pledges of providing cheaper cars," Lim was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini, adding that immediate action must be taken to punish the paper.
PKR communication director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad meanwhile said the incident was an embarrassment for the Malay-language daily, which had in recent times urging for a boycott of low-budget airline Air Asia over a Twitter comment by the CEO of its long-haul partner Air Asia X.
Nazmi said the paper was now "a symbol of ethically bankrupt kind of journalism".
Costly price of new cars became an issue in the recent elections after Pakatan Rakyat pledged to slash taxes in an effort to gradually bring down prices.
Following this, Barisan Nasional too said it would slash car prices.
However, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamad had since clarified that car prices would only be reduced over the next five years.
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