Even Umno minister admits it: 'CELAKA UMNO' not seditious

KUALA LUMPUR - A Umno minister said today that DAP’s RSN Rayer should not have insulted the Malay national party but disagreed that the “celaka Umno” phrase used was seditious in nature.

“I honestly do not think his comment was seditious, but it is clearly obnoxious,” he was quoted as saying in The Star Online.

“The word ‘celaka’ (damn) is very offensive to Malays. It is clear that he does not like Umno and Barisan Nasional, but he does not have the right to say that about the party and certainly did not need to use such unparliamentarian words,” he added.

Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan was commenting on this afternoon's arrest of Rayer, who is DAP's assemblyman for Seri Delima in Penang.

Rayer was taken into custody at around 3.30pm today after he surrendered himself at the George Town district police headquarters in Penang.

George Town district police chief ACP Mior Farid Alathrash said the DAP assemblyman will be charged under the Sedition Act at the Sessions Court tomorrow, on grounds that he had uttered “seditious words” in the state legislative assembly last month.

George Town district police chief ACP Mior Farid Alathrash

Rayer was reported to have said “celaka, celaka, celaka Umno” in last month's state assembly sitting, sparking a demonstration by Umno youth leaders who breached the state legislative assembly gate and stormed into the august hall.

They demanded that Rayer retract and apologise for his remark but he had refused to do so.

The DAP assemblyman insisted that he had only referred to three Umno leaders and not the whole party.

The 14 men who intruded into the state legislative assembly on May 21 will also be charged at the magistrate's court tomorrow under Section 448 of the Penal Code for trespassing. -Malaymail