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Malaysia Efforts To Ensure Peace In Settlements
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Gang clashes that raged in shantytowns outside Kuala Lumpur for four days last week exposed the poverty-stricken life led by both Malays and Indians in some suburbs of the country, a government official said on Thursday.
In order to prevent further chaos, the state of Selangor has decided to organize a series of community-type activities within the region. Officials state the move is in order to soothe nerves in the working-class Selangor neighborhoods.
Deadly clashes between gangs of Malays and Indians occurred last week leaving six dead and 36 injured. Police have arrested over 190 people suspected of participating in the riots.
Joint feasts and cultural shows, sports meetings and anti-crime patrols have been announced by politicians and local authorities who have moved swiftly to contain any fresh outbreak of violence in the area.
The opposition, however, criticized the government decision to concentrate community efforts in the slums and settlements only after clashes occurred.
The Alternative Front (AF) said Thursday that though it welcomed the move by the government, the authorities reaction was late and urged the government to take swift actions to prevent any further clashes.
The National Unity Department in Selangor also made house-to-house visits in order to calm nerves and hear the anxieties of residents, many of whom are factory workers and small traders.
The National Front (NF) Youth suggested that the sharing of food would bring people closer. It wants to hold a series of goodwill feasts they hope will bring Malays and Indians together in order to familiarize each other with one another in the settlements.
Zulkifli Alwi, secretary of NF Youth, said the group is also looking into forming youth-based security patrols to raise a sense of community.
"We urge the youth in each village to set up their respective committees. The main mission is to organize joint patrols," he told reporters.
Malaysian authorities also announced plans to build 5,000 low-cost homes to re-house squatters in the run-down district where the country's worst ethnic clashes in three decades broke out.
Selangor Chief Minister Mohamed Khir Toyo said new homes would be built in Taman Medan, a poor district of Petaling Jaya, west of Kuala Lumpur.
He said the state government would build the homes to end the squatter problem in the area, where there are about 6,000 squatter families.
In addition, he said the state would introduce a special low-cost home ownership scheme for about 30,000 squatters unable to own homes by themselves.
He said the scheme would help squatters overcome downpayment problems for buying low-cost houses costing RM42,000 ($19,300) and below.
He added that the state government would allocate RM100 million to a housing fund that would be used to place downpayments for the purchase of the houses.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused rumormongers of exaggerating the death toll in order to stir unrest and topple the government.
Mahathir said certain groups were encouraging talk among Malays about hundreds of people being killed in the clashes, which pitted Malays against Indians.
"I don't know, maybe such stories are being circulated among the Indians too, hoping that such riots will continue," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama.
"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 added.
"This is the political aspiration of the opposition," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, police said they would investigate four opposition leaders for suspected sedition for alleging that the death toll from the violence exceeded the government's official tally of six.
Nik Ismail Nik Yusoff, police chief of Selangor, said a formal complaint had been lodged against four opposition suspects including Wan Azizah Ismail, president of the National Justice Party (NJP) and wife of jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
The others are Nasharuddin Mat Isa, secretary general of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), Kerk Kim Hock, secretary general of the mainly ethnic Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Syed Husin Ali, president of the Malaysian People's Party.
"Their statements were seditious because they spread feelings of hatred among the races in Malaysia," Nik Ismail said in a statement, adding that all people involved would be summonsed by police.
Sedition is punishable by a fine and up to three years in jail.
If charged and convicted, Wan Azizah, Nasharuddin and Kerk could be expelled from parliament. Syed Husin is not a lawmaker.
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