Specter of Malay extremism after race attacks

Specter of Malay extremism after race attacks

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian government officials on
Thursday raised the specter of Malay extremism in the wake of the
country's worst racial violence in 30 years.

Officials told Reuters police are probing whether a shadowy
militant group carried out attacks on ethnic Indians, which ended
with six people dead -- four of them Indian -- and nearly 30
wounded.

Until now, the government had said last week's clashes outside
Kuala Lumpur were unplanned and played down the racial element.

According to Bernama news agency, Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad said unknown groups were spreading rumors that hundreds
of the country's majority Malays had been killed, and similar
stories could be spread among Indians in a plot to spark more
race riots.

"We know if such riots are allowed to continue, as is the case
in another country, there is a possibility the government can be
toppled," Mahathir said after attending a party meeting in the
east coast state of Pahang.

"This is the political aspiration of the opposition."

Government sources told Reuters police believed an extremist
militant Malay gang from the northern state of Perak could have
been involved, as some of the attacks bore their hallmarks.

"Uniformed gang members go around in a van, slash their
victims and run," said a senior government official who declined
to be identified.

Newspapers have reported that two cabinet members -- including
the leader of the main Indian party -- said they suspected an
unseen hand may have been behind the violence.

The Star reported Works Minister Samy Vellu as saying the area
was probably chosen by a group as a "testing ground".

"This is just the first base. In time they will try it again
at another place," said Vellu, who is also president of the
Malaysian Indian Congress party.

Police over the past few days have arrested nearly 200 people,
some of them for rumor mongering, to quell the violence.

The government is keen to play down the ethnic element in the
clashes, to defuse tensions in a country where Indians make up
eight percent of the 22 million population.

Chinese account for 30 percent and Malays and other indigenous
people the rest.

A heavy police presence restored peace in the Kampung Medan
neighborhood on the edge of Petaling Jaya, a satellite town south
of the capital. No trouble has been reported since Sunday.

But two Indian men were slashed by unidentified attackers
outside a Hindu temple in Puchong Intan, a working-class housing
estate about 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur,
Bernama reported on Thursday.

In Kampung Medan, police say there has been a history of
tension between poor Malays living there and Indian squatters,
whose families migrated to the city from rubber estates.

Mahathir also accused his political rivals of using last
week's racial violence to whip up anti-government feeling.

Mahathir's supporters regard him as a force for moderation in
Malaysia's multi-ethnic melting pot, while his opponents say he
uses racial issues and insecurities to bolster his own position.

On Tuesday, a court charged a leading member of Parti Keadilan
Nasional under the Sedition Act, but released him on bail.

A pro-government newspaper had reported Ezam Mohd Noor,
Keadilan's youth wing leader, as saying he planned daily
demonstrations to bring down the government.

Ezam, whose party is fighting for the release of Mahathir's
jailed rival Anwar Ibrahim, says he is being set up.

Mahathir also accused opposition leaders of exploiting
people's emotions following the clashes.

"We can see how they are focusing on squatter areas and
sympathizing with them by visiting the sick and injured in the
hospital," he said.

"They are so anxious now to show sympathy for the so-called
poor ... as if there are a lot of poor people," he added.

Less than seven percent of Malaysia's 22 million people live
below the poverty line.