New Straits Times-Nov 23

Police are urged to closely monitor all hate speeches and viralled messages pertaining to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) by various groups before things get out of control.

National Patriots Association (Patriot) president, Brig-Jen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamad Arshad Raji said the spate of incendiary speeches, news reports of planned demonstrations on Dec 8, and messages provoking hatred circulating through the social media in the last two weeks were cause for alarm.

Patriot is very concerned that the anti-ICERD protest has been used as a catalyst to possibly stage a planned riot and chaos in different parts of the country.

There is increasing tempo of the anti-ICERD protest even after our Prime Minister has stated that we will not ratify the UN convention,” he said in a statement today.

The concerted attacks on DAP leaders and ‘bangsa DAP’, the accusations of the Deputy Defence Minister as a DAP spy and of the Finance Minister diverting funds for Malay students to Chinese temples, unconfirmed reports of bible distribution in Penang and Kedah, and the threat to instigate a May 13 racial strife were all connected happenings and not isolated events, he said.

Mohamad Arshad, who is also a member of the Institutional Reforms Committee, which was appointed by the government, said even in this era of New Malaysia, there was a limit to free speech.  Bernama