Harsh detention likely for KL rumor-mongers
Harsh detention likely for KL rumor-mongers
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Police on Tuesday banned public gatherings and said they may detain rumor-mongers without trial after Malaysia's worst ethnic clashes for decades.
Seven more arrests were announced, bringing the total to 190 since clashes between ethnic Indians and Malays erupted March 8. Six people were killed and 52 injured.
Five men armed with parangs (machetes) and spiked clubs were held, plus two for spreading rumors.
Asked if the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial, would be used against rumor- mongers, the Selangor state police chief said it was being considered.
"We are looking (at) it," said Nik Ismail Nik Yusoff, adding that the ISA would only be used if no other law could be applied. Hundreds of police, including paramilitaries with M-16 rifles and riot squads, kept watch in the run-down districts but life seemed to be returning to normal.
A minor neighborhood quarrel triggered off unrest in Kampung Medan and other poor districts of Petaling Jaya town just west of Kuala Lumpur.
Some 148 people were brought to court on Monday for remand. Police said they were being investigated for a variety of offences including murder.
Police reported three attacks on Sunday and Monday in nearby areas but it was not clear if they were related to the ethnic unrest.
All public gatherings and speeches were temporarily banned in the state of Selangor, which surrounds Kuala Lumpur, following the clashes.
"For the moment, we are not allowing any talks or public gatherings," Nik Ismail was quoted by Bernama news agency as saying.
Attention was turning to the cause of the flare-up, which shocked many Malaysians. Violent ethnic disputes have been very rare since traumatic Malay-Chinese race riots in 1969.
Opposition party leaders repeated a call for talks with the government. Democratic Action Party secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock said all parties must cooperate to halt tension amid widespread rumors and the "fragility of ethnic relations."
National Justice Party deputy president Chandra Muzaffar called for an independent inquiry, saying there appeared to be "many unanswered questions about what really happened."
Officials and observers said ill-feeling began on March 4 when an Indian returning home from work found the road blocked by a Malay wedding in Kampung Medan. A fight broke out.
Instability
In another development, Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak, blaming instability in Indonesia and other neighboring countries on a "quest for democracy," urged Southeast Asian nations on Tuesday to put prosperity before political reform.
"Malaysia is surrounded by bush fires, and there is some degree of helplessness and even hopelessness," Najib told a business conference. "It is quite obvious that the instability that we are witnessing in our neighborhood has to do with this quest for democracy."
Najib, speaking to about 50 U.S. and Malaysian business executives, claimed that he saw "very little point with the achievement of democracy without its concomitant imperative of prosperity."
"While it is not for me to pass judgment on others, I think it must be difficult to explain to parents that their son or daughter had perished or that there is no food on the table, all in the name of democracy," he said.
The minister urged the global community not to treat all of Southeast Asia as a flashpoint for instability just because there was political turmoil in some countries.
Malaysia is also troubled by instability in neighboring Philippines, where a people's movement unseated ex-President Joseph Estrada in January and where government troops are in conflict with Communist and Muslim rebel groups.
Malaysian authorities have increased patrols along its borders with Indonesia and the Philippines to stop illegal immigrants fleeing instability in their homelands to the relative prosperity of Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's richest countries.