KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak today defended an inflammatory speech that his former aide Nasir Safar made last February, in which he called Indians beggars and Chinese women whores.
“He was not referring to the local Chinese and Indians,” he told Parliament in a written reply to Gobind Singh Deo (DAP-Puchong).
Najib also said the government had decided against prosecuting Nasir despite scores of police reports alleging that he had committed sedition.
He suggested that Nasir’s apology and resignation from his position as special aide to the prime minister were punishment enough for the indiscretion that prompted a large section of his audience to walk out.
Not long after the incident, fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin dragged Nasir into further controversy by alleging that he was one of the last persons to see Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibu alive.
Few people had heard of Nasir until last Feb 2, when a large number of participants walked out of a closed-door seminar in Malacca while he was speaking.
They alleged that he had insulted Malaysian Chinese and Indians in a talk that was supposed to promote Najib’s national integration project, billed as 1Malaysia.
They told reporters that he had said Chinese women came to Malaysia to “sell their bodies” and had described Indian immigrants as beggars.
Investigated for sedition
The incident became a major news item on the Internet and the Prime Minister’s office promptly announced that Nasir had quit his position.
Several of those who walked out of the session lodged police reports, and Malacca police subsequently announced that they had investigated the incident under the Sedition Act and submitted a report to the Attorney-General.
In his written statement in Parliament today, Najib said it would be difficult to prove that Nasir’s outburst was seditious.
“Besides,” he added, “the suspect apologised openly” on Feb 4.
“He said he had no intention to make such seditious [statements] or insult other races in the country.”
Furthermore, he said, Nasir was referring only to foreigners who had migrated to Malaysia in search of work.
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