Editor of Umno organ Wawasan Merdeka Hambali Abdul Latif today denied "misrepresenting" malaysiakini in an article published in its latest issue.

"We got the report directly from The Star newspaper," he said when contacted at the Umno headquarters this afternoon.

The article headlined "KeADILan bergelora" (Rumble within KeADILan) on page four of its June 1-15 issue said that "a website that supports the reformasi movement, malaysiakini, urged all pro-reformasi websites to launch a campaign to call for the resignation of KeADILan deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar and secretary-general Mohd Anuar Tahir".

Another paragraph of the article reads, "Malaysiakini claimed Dr Chanda (sic) and Anuar had failed to continue to carry through the reformasi movement, started by former deputy prime minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998". [See "[#1]KeADILan bergelora[/#]"]

However, The Star's May 26 article stated that "Malaysiakini reported on Wednesday that all the 'underground' reformasi websites had launched a campaign to call for the resignation of Dr Chandra and Anuar". [See "[#2]Websites turn their fire on KeADILan duo[/#]"]

The article, headlined "Websites turn their fire on KeADILan duo", also reported that "the webmasters (referring to the reformasi websites) claimed the two leaders had failed to continue to carry through the reformasi movement started by sacked deputy prime minister Anwar in 1998".

When asked how Wawasan Merdeka came to the conclusion that malaysiakini had "urged" the reformasi websites to launch the "resignation" campaign, an agitated Hambali replied, "It seems that you don't have enough experience. Go back and read The Star article and you will understand. We mentioned the newspaper in our article."

Wawasan Merdeka, which was launched by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed recently, is a bi-monthly party newspaper distributed free of charge to its members. Its third edition was widely distributed in Port Dickson yesterday during the nominations for the upcoming Teluk Kemang by-election.

The 20-page tabloid stated that it is published by the Umno Malaysia Information Committee and printed by Utusan Printcorp.

However, it does not have a Home Ministry's permit number printed on it as required by the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1994.

Under the Act, "any publication, including newspapers or other forms of periodicals printed in any language for sale or for free distribution at regular or irregular intervals, require a publishing permit".

The act also states that every publication printed or published within Malaysia shall have printed legibly in Bahasa Malaysia or the English language on its first or last leaf, the name and address of its printer and publisher.

While Wawasan Merdeka contains the names of its publisher and printer, it does not specify their addresses.

Efforts by malaysiakini to seek clarification on the matter from the publication unit of the Home Ministry have been unsuccessful.