Continuing its tirade against budget airline AirAsia, Utusan Malaysia today turned its sights on businessperson Kalimullah Hassan, who came to the defence of AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani.

Kalimullah, formerly group editor-in-chief of New Straits Times, in defending Azran Osman against Utusan Malaysia's racist front page headline, tweeted "Only the bigots will find comments like that of Azran Osman offensive. He is a true Malaysian."

NONE"I wonder sometimes under which rock some of these Utusan personalities crawled out from. Must be a real sank [sic] dark place," Kalimullah (left) said in his tweet.

Following this, Malay rights group Perkasa described Kalimullah's tweet as an example of a Malay who has forgotten his roots. Perkasa's information chief Ruslan Kassim said Kalimullah could not talk about "who are the true Malaysians" as the businessman had obtained various projects from the government.

"We remind Kalimullah not to forget his roots. Or is he one of those who can be described as a Malay who often forgets," Ruslan said in a statement to the Umno-owned daily.

Former Armed Forces Association president Mohamad Abdul Ghani also called on the Malays to unite against those who want to downplay Utusan Malaysia's struggle for the race.

'No issue to describe Utusan as racist'

Gerakan Reformasi Rakyat Malaysia president Ramlan Abu Bakar urged Kalimullah to explain his ties with Azran Osman, as what was reported by Utusan was related to the rights of the Malays according to the federal constitution.

Ramlan said there was no issue for which Utusan Malaysia could be described as racist.

Suara Anak Muda 1Malaysia president Armand Azha Abu Hanifah wants Kalimullah to view the daily's report on a wider scope and not be prejudiced and label it as racist.

Jaringan Melayu Malaysia deputy president Omar Salleh claimed Kalimullah was the largest shareholder of AirAsia and that he should apologise to the Malays for Azran Osman's outburst.

"We want to know whether Kalimullah influenced Azran Osman to think negatively about Utusan, to the extent that he can make a statement against his own race. We fully support the Umno veteran's call for a boycott of AirAsia and AirAsia X," Omar said.

Utusan today also reported a statement by the civil service trade union federation Cuepacs urging civil servants to boycott AirAsia.