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Kota Kinabalu: A former Bernama journalist revealed how he was “punished” for reporting squarely about comments by then Deputy Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Vietnamese boat people would be shot on sight to prevent them from landing on Malaysian shores in 1979.

The report made world headlines and brought condemnation and forced then Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn to say that Malaysia had no such intention. It was one of those moments journos often faced when going about their job without any agenda whatsoever, except to report what was said. Rajan Moses who went on to serve Reuters as an international correspondent said:  “I was the only journalist, a Bernama journalist at that, who actually wrote the ‘shoot on sight’ story based on what Mahathir said to a few reporters at the UKM news conference in June 1979. “It made world headlines. The Bernama story (my story) was played up well but later was re-edited and tempered to take out the sting in the original story,” he explained in the Malaysia First chat group, whose members broached the issue after Dr Mahathir’s’daughter, Marina, erroneously attributed the comments to late Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie, the Home Minister.

This prompted some to suggest that an apology to Ghaz’ family was in order.  Moses explained: “The next day Ghaz then said the authorities did not say ‘shoot’ but ‘shoo’.  I was the same Bernama journalist who covered the Ghaz presser the next day. I was baffled by what Ghaz said.” Following the episode, Moses was transferred to the translation desk. “No hot stories to cover or write. About two years or so, I wangled a post at the economic desk for few years. “Many local and foreign correspondents were aware of how much that incident had scarred me. “But driven by sheer grit, I pulled myself back and landed a job at Reuters as one of its local correspondents. Then Reuters gave me the opportunity to move as an international correspondent in Chicago, DC, then HK, Malaysia, Thailand and the Singapore over a span of 24 years,” he said, becoming one of the first Malaysian journalists to work for a reputed international news agency. He also was later a consultant with Bernama, Business Times before moving on to Ogilvy and Sapura Energy. He said the whole episode was “traumatic personally but it ended with a silver lining. “When I look back, I had a brilliant career at Reuters thanks to this episode.

“We can’t have columnists just distorting the truth, or dressing it all up, even if it dates back to 1979,” he said, referring to Marina’s comments. Meanwhile, Marina apologised for the error in her recent column in The Sunday Star.

In her column dated Jan 30, she said, among other things: “I’ve been through embarrassing moments abroad when our politicians have said something stupid and then tried to cover it up. In the late 70s when we had many Vietnamese refugees landing on our shores, our then home minister announced that we would shoot any that washed up on our beaches. “Predictably, outrage ensued around the world. He then gave the standard politician’s excuse, that he was misquoted, that he actually said he would ‘shoo’ them away. Did anyone believe it?”

In a Facebook post, Marina thanked all those who had pointed out the “major factual mistake” in her column.

“It seems that I’m capable of making my own gaffes so I stand corrected and sincerely apologise.

“It was not meant to revise history, as some have alleged, it was wholly the weak memory of something that happened when I was barely out of my teens and still trying to make sense of the world.

“I unreservedly apologise to anyone I have hurt or offended by this mistake,” she said.

However, she did not name either Ghazali or Mahathir in her statement of apology.

According to a Washington Post article dated June 19, 1979, Hussein Onn rushed to reassure then UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim that there was no such policy.

“I wish to state that our measures to prevent further inflow of the boat people do not include shooting them,” Hussein said. The Washington Post report noted that Hussein’s statement contradicted Mahathir’s words, “who according to several news agencies, threatened that new refugees would be shot and that the estimated 75,000 in camps here would be put back to sea”.

He also was reported to have said that Malaysia was building a fleet of boats to facilitate the expulsion of the refugees.