Isma being investigated under Sedition Act, says IGP

(The Malaysian Insider) – Police are probing the remarks made by Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma)

president Abdullah Zaik Abdullah Rahman under the Sedition Act, Malaysiakini reported today.

Zaik had said yesterday that Chinese migrants brought in by the British to Tanah Melayu were “trespassers” and questioned the citizenship and wealth given to them but did not specify how it proposed to correct this purported wrong.

Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar (pic) told the Malaysiakini news portal that investigations would be carried out.

He also warned all quarters against making inflammatory remarks.

“My advice to all is to be careful in making statements that could stir racial tension in the country,” he added.

MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong told The Malaysian Insider today that the party demanded that the police investigate the group for saying the Chinese brought to Tanah Melayu were “trespassers”, and stressed that such remarks were dangerous to society.

“When you make accusations like that, of course you will get a reaction. The Chinese community will be angry – the entire MCA is angry with this,” the Barisan Nasional’s Ayer Itam MP said.

“It’s bad, it’s unacceptable, and authorities should investigate Isma. In fact, this investigation is overdue and the police would know best which law to investigate them under.”

He said the Isma president had failed to understand the contributions the Chinese had made to the country, and urged him to stop generalising the entire community.

“Abdullah, don’t ever think that the Chinese are bad people. We are hard-working, and we treat this country as our only country; there is no other place to go,” said Wee.

“When the Chinese netizens whacked Malaysia (over flight MH370’s disappearance), they didn’t spare the Chinese Malaysians. Because they know we are a part of Malaysia, that this is our country.”

Politicians from both sides of the divide also joined MCA in expressing outrage over Isma’s incendiary remarks towards the Chinese.

Umno’s Saifuddin Abdullah also saw red over Abdullah’s remarks and called on the police to investigate it.

“Stop the anti-Chinese and anti-Christian sentiments before it turns to something worse. The authorities must investigate,” the former higher education minister said in a tweet today.

They were reacting to Isma’s claim that Chinese migrants brought in by the British to Tanah Melayu were “trespassers” and this wrong had to be corrected.

Abdullah Zaik said the Chinese who came to Malaya were “trespassers” and questioned the citizenship and wealth given to them but did not specify how it proposed to correct this purported wrong.

“Who gave them citizenship and wealth until the results of their trespassing are protected until this day?

“This was all the doing of the British, who were in cohorts with the Chinese to oppress and bully the Malays,” he said in a statement today, as reported on the group’s website.

Abdullah also said this was a mistake which had to be corrected but he did not say how.

“Nobody has the right to mortgage the sovereignty of Islam and the Malays on this land,” he said in a statement posted on Isma’s website yesterday.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the DAP condemned Isma's "dangerous lies" which preached religious and racial extremism.

He likened the group's language to that used against the minority Muslim Rohingyas ‎to justify the community’s oppression in Myanmar.

"DAP also condemns the Attorney-General for failing to act against these racists and religious bigots who use such language of violence, which the BN government appears to be indirectly encouraging the breeding of hatred," he said in a statement today.

He said that Isma's lies were full of seditious tendency under Section 3 (1) of the Sedition Act, by promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of Malaysia,

Lim added that Isma‎ had also questioned Part III of the Federal Constitution relating to citizenship of all Malaysians.

"How can the Attorney-General be fit to hold office and function impartially to uphold the law when there is such travesty of double-standards?"‎ said Lim.

DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke said the party would get the ball rolling by lodging police reports against Isma nationwide today.

“The comments were not only highly insensitive and seditious, but a distortion of historical facts. These are extremists who are trying to create racial disharmony in the country,” said the Seremban MP.

“Their existence is a threat to Malaysian society itself, and if left unchecked, could lead to hate crime in the country. The government must stop this immediately,” he said.

Loke added that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his colleagues must step forward and condemn Isma’s remarks to keep the group in check.

“We need political leadership from the prime minister. The top leaders of the country must come out with a strong statement and put a stop to Isma,” he said.