After eight decades, Utusan Malaysia is no more. So, too, her much younger sister paper, Kosmo.

Utusan Melayu Group executive chairman Datuk Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, in a circular, had said the two papers were unable to meet their monthly advertising revenue targets, with things having especially gone downhill from May last year.

At that point in time, the paper was partly owned by Umno and seen as a party mouthpiece. Dwindling circulation numbers seemed to plunge even further after the general election, while Umno had to sell its interests in the paper after bank accounts were frozen by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) during its 1MDB probe.

The papers' employees slammed top management after being left in the lurch, having no prior notice that yesterday would be their last day of work. Their union representatives were furious, calling the management cowards for having run away.

The last official day is the end of the month, but Utusan itself is expected to live on. Word is that Aurora Mulia, a company which recently bought its printing licence and a 70% stake in Utusan's holding company, plans to launch another publication. From what BTL has been told, some staff who've been let go will be "re-hired" next month.

PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad's media and communications adviser A. Kadir Jasin, a veteran newsman himself, blamed Utusan's demise and the "rot in the mainstream media" as a whole on former PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's advisers - which was called out as bullshit by a bunch of folk. 

Veteran politician Zaid Ibrahim reminded Kadir that the "rot" in the mainstream media began during Mahathir's first tenure as PM, back in the days when he used to head Umno/BN. Zaid also said New Straits Times Press papers were not the "beacon of ethical journalism" during Kadir's time as head. Opposition views were barely given space and editors were often called to the PM's office for a "chiding" if they didn't toe the line.

Rembau MP (and Abdullah son-in-law) Khairy Jamaluddin agreed with Zaid that the decline actually began before Abdullah's time. While KJ's statement of course has a huge self-serving interest to it, we would hazard a guess that any veteran newsman - apart, obviously, from Forgetful Kadir - would agree as well.

Speaking of bullshit, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi blamed Pakatan Harapan (well, partly anyway) for the untimely demise of the national paper. This was apparently because Umno funds were frozen, making the party unable to offer the paper financial assistance.

In case y'all don't remember, there was a Malay Dignity Congress last weekend. Organised by academics and so-called intellectuals, and attended by political powerhouses, it would have been the perfect platform to discuss and figure out how to save an institution that was once a beacon of Malay dignity.

But hey, when has that ever made for good, incendiary political drama?

It's official folks. The Anti-Fake News Act, like Utusan Malaysia, is no more.

Unlike the paper though, there should be no possibility of it coming back in any way or form. But then again, never say never. It may just reappear under a new name later, or should BN come back into power following the next general election, make a reappearance.

The Dewan Rakyat passed the Anti-Fake News Repeal Bill after a manual vote count yesterday. Again. The government had successfully pushed through the same bill last year, with Pakatan MPs voting to repeal the act. But the Dewan Negara, largely under the control of BN senators, voted to reject the bill.

The government then had to wait a requisite year before re-tabling the bill. There was much debate during which MPs from the two sides of the political divide hurled "fake news" at each other. We're not sure if that's hilarious or just run-of-the-mill lack of self-awareness. 

Under Malaysian law, the Senate can't reject a bill twice, so that's that for the act. It's also one of the many, many unfulfilled promises of the Pakatan election manifesto finally kept (though really we can't blame them for this one).

Those who think this is a license to go out and binge-spread fake news may want to think twice. There is still such a thing as defamation. And, even criminal defamation.

Side note: one of the biggest criticisms of our anti-bullshit law was that the definition of bullshit was anything the government deemed it to be. Which meant that it could've been used as a repressive and political tool.

Well, guess who introduced a similar law recently? Stand up and take a bow, Singapore, for winning the inaugural BTL Three Steps Backward award

After almost a year since the police said they were looking for 66 people to assist investigations into the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim during a riot outside the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya, only 10 have come forward.

Now, police have urged the other 56 to come forward. You would think the cops would be actively going out to seek these 56 people, but that's a little tough considering their names are unknown.

When the call was made, Adib was still being treated for his injuries at the National Heart Institute (IJN) and the case was still classified as attempted murder. He would die in December, and investigators would reclassify the case as murder, a capital offence - which is probably why nobody is that enthused to come forward with a mea culpa.

In November last year, Adib and colleagues had responded to an emergency call of at least one vehicle on fire following rioting outside the temple. The riots were sparked by the appearance of a group of people who had allegedly attempted to forcibly remove temple devotees who had refused to allow it to be relocated to another area.

Adib was reported to have been assaulted by rioters and was later sent to hospital, before being transferred to IJN due to the severity of his injuries, eventually dying. Temple devotees, however, denied Adib had been assaulted.

A coroner's inquest was later established to determine the cause of his death and after a lengthy proceeding, ruled he'd been assaulted by two or more people, leading to fatal injuries. Judge Rofiah Mohamad, acting as coroner, ruled the case was a criminal one.

Following judgement, police waited for further instructions from the Attorney-General's Chambers, receiving them on Oct 4. They said they would be calling up several witnesses who'd testified during the inquest, in particular two experts, one a forensics pathologist and the other a physics expert.

Ex-1MDB and Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi must be ruing the day he accepted his appointment.

Two days ago, he basically admitted he was a stooge and only gained his position because, like Jon Snow, he knew nothing. Yesterday, he admitted to being cheated, easily we might add, in terms of a project, which was likely fictitious, on Pulau Bidong.

And it's all thanks to fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.

Shahrol said he believed the island project, which raised RM5 billion in bonds, was real as Low had shown him plans and claimed an initial survey had been done. Not too long later, despite the bonds plan having been successful, the project "fell through". Convenient, no? Well, by his own admission, Shahrol's not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Shahrol said this when being cross-examined by Najib Razak's lead defence counsel Shafee Abdullah in the former PM's 1MDB related corruption trial.

If that wasn't enough to prove just how inept Shahrol (and the board of TIA, it would seem) was, Shafee proceeded to press home the point. And this time, he thrashed Ambank.

We had already heard the day before how two companies linked to Low, via his father, had purchased bonds at below market rate then sold them off at full price for a tidy "little" profit of RM500 million. This time, Shafee "implicated" Ambank.

Shafee did have a point. Ambank, or at least its representative, had sold the bonds at 88% of the market value to the two Low-linked companies, saying it could not sell it for full price. Yet just a few days later, the same bank/representative managed to find buyers for the bonds now held by the Low companies, at full price.

And the rakyat were effectively screwed over twice because the buyers were EPF and Socso, besides some insurance companies.

Bravo. 

As usual, there were a number of news pieces which we think should at least be mentioned in brief here

• Former BN component party Gerakan is contemplating throwing its hat in the ring for the upcoming Tanjung Piai by-election. The only thing they should be throwing in the ring is the towel.
• Electoral watchdog Bersih has reminded Maddey of the Pakatan election manifesto pledge to reform key institutions and therefore limit the powers of the prime minister touched upon in the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre Bill. Right. Good luck with that.
• With the Oct 12 deadline looming, Grab has told customers to expect longer wait times as only 41% of its drivers have their PSV licences, with another 24% still being processed. Well done lah.
• Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Hanipa Maidin had to apologise to Pengerang MP Azalina Othman Said in Parliament after saying that she sometimes looks like a man and sometimes a woman. He was responding to Azalina's jibe that she wanted to see him clearly as sometimes he looked big and sometimes he looked small.  But there's NO excuse for his remark. Hanipa was bang out of line there.