There are laws to deal with instigators, Dr M says over khat issue

Dr Mahathir Mohamad says there is freedom of speech ‘but we are always sensitive about not instigating people’.

SEPANG: Dr Mahathir Mohamad today hinted that action could be taken against groups who instigate others over the controversy surrounding the introduction of khat in the Bahasa Melayu syllabus next year.

“If you keep on inciting the people to fight each other, of course it is going against the law. We have freedom of speech but we are always sensitive about not instigating people,” he said after attending KLIA’s 21st anniversary here.

Also present were Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook, Malaysia Airports group CEO Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin, Malaysia Airports chairman Zainun Ali and Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari.

Mahathir was asked to comment on a petition calling for the government to ban Dong Zong as a racist organisation, which has gathered over 60,000 signatures. The petition was started by Malay rights movement Gerakan Pengundi Sedar (GPS).

Mahathir had yesterday labelled Dong Zong “racists” after it claimed that the introduction of khat in the Year 4 Bahasa Melayu syllabus for vernacular schools was a medium to spread Islam.

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