Nong Chik: Likely outsiders sparked fracas

While maintaining that there has yet to be proof of who started the Pantai Dalam fracas on last Thursday, Lembah Pantai Umno division chief Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin speculated that it happened because PKR brought outsiders into local politics.

Noting one of the victims, Raja Ismail Raja Din was from Selangor PKR, he said, "Many people had been imported to disturb the situation. If you want to do (a ceramah), do it with the locals. I think many programmes involving only locals had no problems.

"When they bring in ‘imported people', there would often be disturbances because they would be challenging one another and when that happens, even we would have trouble keeping the crowd's ‘temperature' under control," Nong Chik told a press conference today.

As an example, he pointed to the Kampung Kerichi incident on April 3, where outsiders like student activist Adam Adli Abdul Halim and the NGO Persatuan Masyarakat Selangor dan Wilayah Persekutuan (Permas) were brought into a dispute between residents who had moved to make way for the demolition of their former homes, and those who vowed to stay put.

He said that the residents were originally not aggressive until allegedly provoked by the ‘outsiders', resulting in Adam Adli being punched.

In this vein, he commended the Indian Rights Action Force (Indraf 2.0) rally on Sunday that was held behind closed doors, and suggested that future ceramah that were potentially "sensitive" should follow its example.

[More to follow]