THEN ARREST & CHARGE ISMA CHIEF: Cops to act against those who trigger racist issues - deputy IGP

KUALA LUMPUR - The police have warned the public against playing up any issue which can ignite racial tension and disharmony in the country.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin said issues related to religion, tradition, origin and race should not be arbitrarily raised in order to become popular.

He said the force would act firmly under existing laws, specifically the Sedition Act 1948, against anyone who issued statements or acted in any way which could disunite the races in the country," he said in a statement here today.

He said this when further commenting on police investigations into Malaysian Muslim Solidarity (Isma) president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman under Section 4 (1) (c) of the Sedition Act today.

Earlier, Kuala Lumpur CID deputy chief ACP Khairi Ahrasa had said the Isma president was being investigated under the Act for inciting that the arrival of the Chinese to then-Malaya was a form of intrusion.

Yesterday, Abdullah Zaik on Isma's website at www.ismaweb.net viewed the coming of the Chinese to then-Malaya - after they were brought here by the British colonialists - as a form of intrusion to this country and considered them as ungrateful.

His statement was in reaction to the opponents of the proposal to implement the Islamic law, Hudud, from among the non-Muslim groups. - BERNAMA