UK withdraws Malay terrorist ad

UK withdraws Malay terrorist ad
At the Dewan Negara

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — The British High Commission here has agreed yesterday to withdraw an advertisement posted in the British Defence Ministry's website which portrays Malays as terrorists.

Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri said the action was taken following complaints from Malaysia.

"The ministry has also instructed the Malaysian High Commission in London to obtain further clarification on the matter from the British High Commission and to take the necessary action," he said when winding up the debate on the speech by the Yang Di-pertuan Agong in the Dewan Negara yesterday.

The advertisement, which runs for 30 seconds and is also screened in cinemas in Britain, was revealed by a reader of a local newspaper, who saw it when he was in the United Kingdom.

The advertisement shows a leader of a terrorist group, who is a Malay, firing into the air and said "Akulah orang yang paling jahat dalam dunia ini. Mari lawan aku. Aku akan bunuh semua' (I'm the most evil man in the world. Come fight me. I shall kill all of you)."

Earlier, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the government was studying the feasibility of shortening the duration of stay of tourists from India and Bangladesh who entered the country using the visa-on-arrival (VOA) from 30 days to 14 days to deal with the increase in the number of them who went missing during their stay in Malaysia.

"We will also impose a requirement for tourists from Bangladesh and India to produce return tickets before they can be issued with the VOA," he added.

He said 280,451 VOAs were issued to tourists between September 2007 and April this year.

On illegal immigrants, Syed Hamid believed that there were more than one million of them in the country, while foreign workers totalled 2.1 million, adding that the number of foreigners in the country was high compared with Malaysia's 26 million population.

He said the ministry would take action to stop the influx of foreign workers into the country.

To a question on the Internal Security Act, he said the government had no plans to abolish it.

The Dewan Negara sitting continues on Monday. — Bernama