MALAYSIA: 'Police report filed over posting on PM's website'

Blogger lodged police report against Malaysian Prime Minister to expose the double standard of Sedition Act

The Straits Times
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A police report was filed yesterday against Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi over an allegedly seditious posting on his official website, according to several blogs and the Malaysiakini news portal.

They said the report was lodged by a central executive committee member of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), Mr Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew, at the Damansara Utama police station.

The posting mentioned in the police report was titled "Bersatulah Kaum Cina" (The Chinese race must unite) and was written under the pseudonym "Dr Ng Seng."

It allegedly contained comments that might incite racial hatred between the Malays and the Chinese.

Written in Malay, the posting apparently claimed that the Chinese were conspiring to gain control over Malaysia by weakening the Malays politically and economically.

Purportedly extolling meritocracy, the posting also said Singapore had successfully split the Malay community which, the writer claimed, had shrunk to only 10 per cent of the population in the Republic.

Therefore, the writer alleged, the Malays had to accept government policy as they were a minority in Singapore.

Turning to Penang, the posting said the Chinese on the island should work together with Singaporean Chinese so that, one day, it would belong to the Chinese.

This posting was first brought to the public attention by former journalist James Wong Wing On last Thursday on his blog.

According to DAP president Lim Kit Siang, the posting had been on the Prime Minister's Office website since Nov 14, 2005, under an archive of condolences for the late Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, PM Abdullah's first wife.

But it was reported to have been removed from the website yesterday, together with the condolences.

Mr Liu wrote on his blog that the posting was on the site until 2.30am yesterday.He managed to download and print it before it was removed.

Contacted later by Malaysiakini, Mr Liu said the report was lodged to show the "double standards" in the action against several political bloggers.

"I'm not suggesting that the police take action against the Prime Minister.But I'm suggesting that action should not have been taken against Raja Petra (Kamaruddin) and Nathaniel (Tan)," he was reported as saying.

Raja Petra, the webmaster of political website Malaysia Today, was hauled up by the police last week for questioning over comments on his blog which allegedly insulted the King and Islam.

Mr Nathaniel Tan, a webmaster with opposition party Keadilan, was detained by the police two weeks ago in connection with a probe under the Official Secrets Act.

Date Posted: 7/31/2007