Malaysian Govt Bars Newspapers From Reporting On Negarukuku Video Controversy

The Malaysian government ordered mainstream newspapers Tuesday to stop reporting about a controversy over a Chinese student's rap video that parodies the national anthem and pokes fun at Muslims.

Wee Meng Chee, 24, has been widely criticized by political leaders from Malaysia's ethnic Malay Muslim majority after he highlighted this multicultural society's ethnic differences in a video clip posted on YouTube last month.

The Internal Security Ministry told newspapers Tuesday they should only publish comments on the issue made by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy, said Che Din Yusof, an official in the ministry's publications control unit. "Comments by others are not allowed," Che Din said. "Enough is enough. Let's not indulge in this. We don't want to create tension."

It was not immediately clear whether broadcast media outlets were given similar orders. Most of Malaysia's mainstream media are controlled by or closely linked to the ruling coalition parties.

This is the second time in a month that the ministry has issued such a directive. Last month, the media were barred from reporting on a public debate about whether the country is an Islamic state or a secular one.

Wee apologized last week for his video, but Malaysian government ministers have said the attorney general was still investigating the matter to decide whether to prosecute him for sedition, which carries a jail term of up to three years.

In the six-minute clip, Wee blended the national anthem with a rap song blasting discrimination faced by ethnic Chinese. He also poked fun at Muslim morning prayers broadcast from mosques, corrupt policemen and laid-back civil servants, most of whom are Malays.

Opposition leaders have said Wee's video underscores discontent among minority Chinese and Indians, especially over privileges that Malays receive in jobs and education under a decades-old affirmative action program.

Such lampooning is rare in Malaysia, where the ethnic communities have coexisted peacefully since racial riots sparked by Malay frustration over the Chinese's economic clout left at least 200 people dead in 1969. (International Herald Tribune)
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