Dear editor,
Editor-in-Chief @ Today Newspaper
I read with great interest the interview Maria Buncamper-Molanus granted her campaign manager Mike Granger (The Daily Herald, June 3).
Please permit me to give my view on two statements that directly affect me.
The first statement is: “It was the editor that stated that every story he wrote from 2011 until 2014 was based on what he got from the former head prosecutor Hans Mas. It was with the help of the prosecutor’s office and in particular Hans Mos that political prosecution took place and judicial persecution continues to take place.”
Being the editor Mrs. Buncamper-Molanus refers to, I have to say that this statement amazed me; it is dead wrong and apparently concocted to create the impression that the prosecutor’s office was on her case and to make people believe she is the victim of political persecution. Nice try.
The truth is that the basis for the story about the fraud with land the Buncampers held in long lease is based on a document I obtained against regular payment from the public register of the Cadastre. There was no prosecutor in sight that day, December 7, 2010.
After I published the story and some follow ups, of course I asked the prosecutor’s office every now and then for an update, as any journalist would. So the bulk of the story is the result of journalistic sleuthing, not of a campaign driven by the prosecutor’s office.
Has the Today newspaper “very conveniently” reported “basically the prosecutor’s office side of the story?” as Buncamper-Molanus wants us to believe?
No we didn’t. In fact, we were the first, if not the only newspaper to criticize the prosecutor’s office for dragging its feet with a (possible) criminal investigation. No citizen should be left in uncertainty for that long.
I perfectly understand the political dynamics and the twist Buncamper-Molanus wishes to give to her story, but I figure that most readers, apart from the 202 that still voted for her in 2014, will see straight through it.
Oh, on a side note, take a look at this quote: “My support grew during the last election with the UP compared to my previous run on the DP.” (I guess this should read: on the DP-list).
True or false? In 2014, Buncamper-Molanus won 202 votes on the UP-list. In 2007, she was good for an impressive 494 votes on the DP-list. Then came the Sky is the Limit controversy (remember that one?) and in 2010 her support nosedived to 136.
So yeah, compared to the last DP-run her support grew by 48.5 percent, but compared to the heydays of 2007, almost 300 voters turned their backs on her, a drop of 59.1 percent. This is where you see that figures do lie every now and then.
Hilbert Haar,
Editor-in-Chief @ Today
