The group editor-in-chief of government-linked New Straits Times today said he had been sacked, less than a month after new Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took office.

The editor, Abdullah Ahmad, 66, told AFP the move was apparently due to a recent article he wrote, in which he had questioned the failure by the Kingdom to keep away Islamic militants from the land of hold cities, had caused a rift between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

"I am not surprised at all they sacked me," he said in a telephone interview during a visit to Hong Kong.

"In Malaysian politics, anything can happen. Probably they are not happy with me. What can I do, I have to take it and retire gracefully," he said.

Abdullah told AFP he had held the post of group editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd for two years and his contract was due to end in October next year.

"I got wind of this last week. I called up the owners of the New Straits Times this morning and they confirmed it," he said.

Paying of extremists

In the article, Abdullah had claimed that Islam had suffered at the hands of the guardians of the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, both located in Saudi Arabi and under the protection of the ruling House of Saud.

"Excess oil money coupled with the Wahhabi sect was bound to add up to a combustible mix. Some American analysts contend that the export of radical Islam was a deliberate ploy by the Saudi elite. Many moderate Muslims agree," he wrote in his Nov 12 On The Record column.

He added that the Wahhabi belief, practised by the Saud household, made the Saudi monarchy resistant to change and democracy.

"Like any other totalitarian system, an attempt to pluralism will weaken both the regime and the dogma that upholds it."

He added that by supporting "the ustaz, mullah and madrasah, chiefly in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet heathens, the rich Saudis tried to pay off the extremists to look elsewhere."

It is believed that the Saudi mission in Kuala Lumpur has expressed its unhappiness over the article to the Malaysian government.

Concerned over articles

Abdullah's aides said there had been indications as early as a year ago from advisors to the new premier that NST chief would be removed because he was deemed "too independent" and they were unhappy with his editorials and opinion pieces.

"They are unhappy about some articles he wrote. He had been told that one of the first things the new regime would do is sack him. They need to show that they are tough," an aide said.

Premier Abdullah succeeded Dr Mahathir Mohamad following his retirement Oct 31 after 22 years in office.

Sources close to the premier denied the editor's sacking was politically motivated, but said it was due to the Nov 12 article entitled which criticised the Saudi government and soured bilateral ties.

It embarrassed the new premier and Umno, and "caused grave damage to ties with Saudi and the credibility of Malaysia" at a time when it is chairing the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a source told AFP.

"He has gone overboard. His article is against the interest of the nation and he has to be responsible for it," the source added.

The New Straits Times is Malaysia's oldest English newspaper and is linked to Umno, the linchpin of the ruling coalition, through ownership by companies seen as proxy to the party. - AFP