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.