THE Utusan Melayu management’s decision to choose creditors’ voluntary liquidation of the newspaper is to save its brand and licence, said Johan Jaafar.

The former Utusan group chief editor also said the management looked only at business interests, and not the 800 workers who lost their jobs “in an instant”.

“So, what has happened is that the company is winding up via voluntary liquidation. So, whoever is working with Utusan Melayu is deemed to have lost his post. All assets under the company will be sold to settle debts.

“In this process, what is saved is the brand name and licence, but (employees’) welfare is not taken into consideration. It is strictly about business.

“In my opinion, they should have thought about other options,” he told reporters after attending a media workshop in the Parliament building today.

Johan, who managed Utusan in the 1990s, said he is saddened to see the fate of the country’s oldest newspaper.

“There is no other way to take back all the workers. It is something very sad. The 80-year-old company has been closed down without staff’s welfare being considered.”

On Wednesday, an internal memo by Utusan executive chairman Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir was circulated among employees, saying the company’s board of directors, on October 7, approved creditors’ voluntary liquidation proposal and decided to shut down operations. – Bernama, October 12, 2019.