PETALING JAYA: DAP wants the government to stop screening the politically contentious Tanda Putera and halt the production of a television serial based on the controversial novel Interlok.
“In the name of national unity, the government must stop this. Is national unity and racial harmony not important to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government? Have they not learnt their lesson? ” asked DAP vice-chairman M Kulasegaran.
He said national unity must be placed above petty politics and warned that there will be huge public outcry if the government proceed with the matter.
“Let me warn the government that if they are thinking of punishing voters for not supporting BN in the general election, there will be a stronger Malaysian tsunami against the ruling coalition in the 14th general election,” said Kulasegaran, in a statement.
Yesterday, National Indian Rights Action Team (Niat) chairman Thasleem Mohd Ibrahim alleged that RTM had been entrusted to make a television serial based on the Interlok novel.
The novel, which is derogatory of non-Malays, is expected to go into production “very soon”.
Thasleem also criticized the government for giving the green light to cinemas to screen the movie Tanda Putera on August 29.
Tanda Putera is said to depict the Chinese and the opposition as the mastermind of the May 13 1969 riots.
‘Too many deaths in custody’
On another matter, Kulasegaran called upon Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) without further delay.
To facilitate the process, the Ipoh Barat MP urged the premier to lift the party whip and allow all BN MPs to vote according to their conscience on the IPCMC proposal at the Parliament.
“Way too many deaths in custody have happened. Malaysians have had enough. There must not be any delay in setting up the IPCMC,” said Kulasegaran.
Between 2000 to 2010, 122 people have lost their lives while being detained by the police.
On May 21, Indah Water employee N Dhamendran, 32, was found dead at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters after he went there to lodge a police report on a fight.
The police had initially claimed that Dhamendran died due to asthma attack but postmortem report revealed that he died due blunt force trauma.
The most recent case happened on Saturday, when security guard P Karunanithi was found dead at the Tampin police headquarters. The police had classified the case as “sudden death”.
