Karpal cites ex-judge for alleged sedition, seeks A-G’s action

Karpal said he was taken aback by the “good and fair” judge’s reported remarks. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, May 15 ― DAP chairman Karpal Singh has urged the Attorney-General (A-G) to take action over former top judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah’s statements, which he said “practically amounts to pitting Malays against Chinese”.

He also lodged a police report today against the former Court of Appeal judge for making allegedly seditious remarks, saying Mohd Noor did not retract or clarify his statements made last Sunday that included an accusation that the Chinese were plotting to “seize political power” despite already possessing economic clout.

“I do so in the public interest which is paramount and I hope the A-G will act swiftly because if no action is taken, this position may escalate into something which may not be good for the country,” the DAP chairman and veteran lawyer told reporters before lodging the report at the Tun HS Lee police station here.

Karpal said he was shocked by the statement made by Mohd Noor at the forum titled “GE13 post-mortem: Muslim leadership and survival”. “I must say he was a good and fair judge when he was on the bench.”

Mohd Noor, who is on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) complaints committee, had also reportedly warned the Chinese of a “Malay backlash” for their alleged “betrayal” of Barisan Nasional (BN) in the May 5 polls.

PKR ally Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had branded Mohd Noor a “racist” who would have put American white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to shame and made Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler proud.

Post-Election 2013 has seen scores of BN and BN-friendly leaders take pot shots at the Chinese community for their clear backing of federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) during the tumultuous polls last week.

But while they argue that it had been a "Chinese tsunami" that had cost BN to bleed seats, analysts and PR leaders have denied this, pointing to the 51 per cent in popular vote that the opposition had won against BN’s 48 per cent.

Instead, they have argued that the vote trend did not reflect a Chinese versus Malay contest but rather an urban versus rural divide that has resulted in the emergence of two Malaysias.

Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia has been pushing the view that the election results were because the Chinese had voted against BN, publishing daily news and editorials to expound this point, which have been backed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.